Today we celebrate Anita Borg a computer scientist who founded the Institute for Women and Technology and the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.
Here’s more from the Heinz Awards:
[Dr. Anita Borg’s] brilliant success in breaking through the “silicon ceiling” was an exception that proved the rule. One day, attending a major industry seminar, she looked around and realized that there were only a handful of women in the room. She pulled that small group together and started Systers, an e-mail list and information-sharing network that now provides mentors, support, encouragement, contacts and ideas via the Internet to more than 2,500 women in 38 states and foreign countries.
In 1994, Dr. Borg co-convened the first Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. Named in honor of a World War II computer pioneer, that first conference was attended by almost every notable woman in the field from all over the world – admittedly a small group.The fourth Grace Hopper Celebration will be held in October in Vancouver, with several hundred women attending.
Dr. Borg feels that, by presenting the major purpose of computer technology as solving straightforward technical challenges, we have lost the interest of many brilliant technical minds – often female – because their interest lies more in solving real problems than in creating technology for technology’s sake.
In 1997, Dr. Borg left the industry to found and lead the Institute for Women and Technology (IWT). In addition to assuming responsibility for a number of existing programs – including Systers and the Grace Hopper Celebrations – IWT is an experimental research and development organization focused on increasing the impact of women on technology, as well as enhancing the positive impact of technology on women around the world.