Perhaps the one special photograph that inspired me to learn to code and become a programmer was this one:

It showed women expertly configuring wires on a massive machine — the first general-purpose all-electronic digital computer. They were called the first modern computer coders, or programmers, in the U.S. As Becky Little explained in her article for History, the two men who had designed the computer, called the ENIAC, had been well-known since 1946.

According to computer programmer, author, and historian Kathy Kleiman, nobody had any idea who the women in this photo were. It was simply assumed that they had no contribution to the creation of this machine. And by the time these female programmers finally received public acclaim, most were in their late 70s.

As Kleiman ironically said (per Little):

“I had been told they were models. And of course, they’re not.”

While the male inventors of the ENIAC machine, John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, received all the awards and accolades, these women received no recognition for their efforts. They were simply forgotten in the annals of history.

Girls learning to code is not a new phenomenon, though. From Marissa Mayer, who rose from a programmer to become the CEO of Yahoo, to Ally Watson, who founded the Melbourne-based organization Code Like a Girl, the examples are endless.

But the real problem is that programming is nowhere near as popular among girls as it needs to be. Which is why it is important that more girls learn coding in today’s world. Even today, the number of women in STEM fields across the world is far less than expected — even in developed countries.

And while some progress has been made in recent years with more and more girls entering into STEM fields, we still have a long way to go. Complete diversity and equality can only be achieved by constantly highlighting the many reasons for girls to learn coding.

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