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Unraveling the Masculinization of Technology

Audrey Eschright • November 13, 2018 • Los Angeles, CA

In her talk titled "Unraveling the Masculinization of Technology" at RubyConf 2018, Audrey Eschright explores the relationship between gender and technology, highlighting the historical context that contributed to the perception of technology as a masculine pursuit. The discussion delves into the gendered history of computing and offers insights on how to foster a more inclusive environment in the tech industry.

Key Points:

  • Historical Background: Eschright emphasizes that the computing field was initially built by women in the 1940s and 1950s, who played crucial roles in programming and computation. This contribution waned in the 1970s and 80s when the industry adopted a more masculine identity.
  • Gendered Perception of Tech: The narrative surrounding technology has shifted, leading to job advertisements, conference speaker rosters, and company cultures that paint programming as a male-oriented activity, thus reinforcing stereotypes that make it harder for women to enter the field and succeed.
  • Impact of Masculinization: The masculine identity associated with programming benefits men disproportionately, enabling them to secure better job opportunities, higher salaries, and faster promotions. This also affects investment patterns in the tech industry, as those in decision-making roles often resemble the prevailing masculine ideal.
  • Examples of Shifts in Gender Draft: The talk mentions historical figures like the original women programmers of the ENIAC and contrasts their contributions with the later narrative that featured male icons like Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, showcasing how these shifts shaped societal perspectives on who can be a programmer.
  • Cultural Imprints in Recruiting: The prevalent attributes tied to successful programmers in modern culture highlight characteristics such as risk-taking and puzzle-solving, which do not encompass the broader competencies that have been historically associated with computing and programming.
  • Call for Change: Eschright advocates for rewriting the narrative around participation in technology to encourage more equitable involvement by different genders, urging the community to recognize and honor the diversity that has historically existed in computing.

Conclusion:

The talk concludes with a crucial takeaway: understanding the historical context of gender in computing is essential for crafting a more inclusive future in technology. By recognizing the contributions of women and challenging the masculine paradigms that currently dominate, the industry can work towards equitable representation and participation.

Unraveling the Masculinization of Technology
Audrey Eschright • November 13, 2018 • Los Angeles, CA

RubyConf 2018 - Unraveling the Masculinization of Technology by Audrey Eschright

Have you ever wondered where the perception that technology is a masculine pursuit comes from? Or why we have to explain that, "no really, women are interested in computers too"? At the beginning of the modern technological era, to be a computer was to be an actual literal woman—someone trained in math and computations. Decades later, women are underrepresented in most technical pursuits, with an increasingly “leaky” pipeline leaving fewer and fewer throughout our career progression. Learn about the gendered history of computing and explore how we can write a new narrative of participation.

RubyConf 2018

00:00:15.500 Hello, thank you for joining me for this post-lunch slot. I hope you enjoyed it.
00:00:23.100 So I'm Audrey, and I am going to be giving a talk titled "Unraveling the Masculinization of Technology." I'm going to discuss gender, technology, and meaningful change. In the program, it says that we're going to learn about the gendered history of computing and explore how we can write a new narrative. That's only sort of true, but I'll explain.
00:00:43.050 Hello, my pronouns are she and her. I publish a thing called "The Recompile," which is a feminist hacker journal. We also have a book called "The Responsible Communication Style Guide." Additionally, I am a Ruby programmer, and I would love to talk to you about my favorite Ruby project later.
00:01:03.629 This talk was supposed to be an update of a talk I gave a couple of years ago at UltraConf. Back then, in 2016, I started off with the idea that we could observe that technology and programming are frequently considered to be male or masculine.
00:01:11.490 There are many things that reinforce this perception for us, from job ads to speaker line-ups at conferences, company team pages, and so on. This has obvious effects; the gendering of technology allows men to find it easier to get interviews and jobs, be paid more, and be promoted more often.
00:01:21.660 This also leads to men being able to invest in new companies, bringing more people like them into the industry. Once I've established that, I can show you that the field of computing was created by women in the 1940s and 1950s, and it still heavily depended on female labor through the 1960s.
00:01:40.680 However, in the 1970s and 80s, the computing industry redefined itself to become more masculine. Some people benefited significantly from this change, while others just went along for the ride. To give you a visual example, we went from the original women who programmed the ENIAC and their work with cables, not just assistants or technicians, to seeing the two Steve's who founded Apple working on early ideas at the Homebrew Computer Club.
00:02:04.290 How this change happened isn't simple; however, we have research that can explain how the industry developed between 1946 and 1978. As the computing industry grew, companies created hiring processes and cultures that made certain kinds of masculine identities the default. I'll have some references on this at the end.
00:02:34.580 This cartoon is from an ACM conference paper. It states that programmers are often identified as being interested in puzzles, research applications, and risk-taking while disliking social interactions. This puzzle-loving, risk-taking persona of what makes a good programmer wasn't the only option even in the 1960s.
00:03:07.920 This is illustrated in an article from a popular women's magazine where Dr. Grace Hopper explained that programming is akin to planning a dinner. As a staff scientist and systems programmer for UNIVAC, she helped develop the first
Audrey Eschright
@aeschright
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