27 May
2014
27 May
'14
11:36 a.m.
On 05/27/2014 10:28 AM, Ian S. King wrote:
Yes, I remember the early 1980s and working in a small
shop that did
primarily what we would now call embedded systems with 6800
microprocessors, but also some larger business systems based on
minicomputers. We had a very attractive young woman who did programming on
the business stuff, and we insensitive males referred to her (out of her
earshot) as "software". She dressed well, she was sweet and friendly (and
obviously, tolerant!) and she could code.
Based on my own experience, the gender distribution in software was
greatly influenced by the software context. Operating system software
(the stuff written in assembly to make the hardware do its tricks) was
strongly male-dominated.
Applications software generally employed a larger proportion of females,
until you got to the business software, where, in my experience, the
area was dominated by female programmers.
Now, during the period that this film seems to cover, my employment was
with the hardware manufacturers not with the users or software houses.
So my mileage certainly varies.
--Chuck