Women are taking the world by storm. Although there is still misogyny in the world, women are paving the way and making their mark in workplaces. Women are hard-working and have to push themselves to get the same recognition, praise, and pay as men. The tech world, along with many other careers, is a “man’s” job, but women have made their mark in STEM. An article by Amelia Whyman in October 2019 explains the importance of women in tech. Her article proclaims her appreciation for 10 women who changed the tech world in honor of Ada Lovelace Day.
Ada Lovelace Day was founded in 2009 by Suw Charman-Anderson. According to Whyman’s article Charman- Anderson, after she realized women in STEM are invisible in the field, she wanted to praise them by encouraging people to be vocal about their achievements. This article is a great read; it is very motivating and empowering. Women have to hold themselves to a higher standard in the career field of STEM. Aside from having the credentials, they must be confident and assertive and command respect. Women have impacted the area of STEM in beautiful ways that many people aren’t aware of. Going back to 1942, Hedy Lamarr earned a patent to create a remote communication system to set radio-guided torpedos off course during the war. Her idea inspired the design that created WIFI. Also of honorable mention, Annie Easley was an African American NASA rocket scientist and was one of the first four black employees at NASA. Her work on the Centaur rocket project would be the foundation for space shuttle launches further down the line.
This article is beautifully written. Not only did she touch on the women that made history Whyman also reached out to women that are making history. She reached out to 5 women with the question, “what does being a woman in tech mean to you? The responses were from Kike Oniwinde, the founder and CEO of BYP Network, and Chelsea Brown, the CEO and founder of Digital Mom Talk she is also a certified cyber security consultant for families and businesses, Christina Ivanciuc, the Lifecycle Manager and Global App Testing, Andrea Lounier, CEO and founder of Malibird, and Vy Luu, the General Manager at Real Estate Webmasters.
Women in STEM are changing the world and statistics. The Research Institute (RSI) is a renowned summer STEM program for high school students, and new reports have shown that females student will outnumber males student for the first time in 2022. Women may be the new faces of STEM.
In appreciation of women of STEM, here are five more women of STEM that have changed the world
Tu Youyou: in 2015, she became the first woman from the People’s Republic of China to receive the Nobel Prize she and two other scientists shared the noble for discovering artemisinin and dihydroartemisinin drugs that treat malaria.
Alice Augusta Ball was the first African American woman to graduate from the University of Hawaii and get her master’s degree. She later became the first female chemistry teacher. Before she passed, her most significant scientific contribution was a novel called ‘Ball Method”, an effort o assist in treating leprosy
Angella Dorethea Furguson: Furguson studied biology at Howard University. Her initial research was the typical development of African American children since no such data existed. She eventually noticed the high percentage of sickle cell anemia, and she invited the blood test that can detect the disease at birth.
Evelyn Body Granville: She was awarded a predoctoral fellowship from the Atomic Energy Commission and graduated with her Ph.D. in mathematics in 1956, making her the second African American woman to receive a Ph.D. from an American university. She later worked on missile fuses at the National Bureau of Standards, wrote software for the IBM 650 computer, and calculated space trajectories at the Computation and Data Reduction Center of Space Technology Laboratories. Furthermore, she worked on celestial mechanics, trajectory, and orbit computation as a research specialist for the North American Aviation Company. She retired in 1997, and today, she continues to advocate for minorities in the STEAM fields and emphasizes the power of education.
Evelyn Carmon Nicol: She worked as a research assistant and significantly produced Henrietta Lacks cell lines to develop polio vaccines. During her tenure, Nicol became the first to successfully isolate the Herpes Zoster virus, also known as shingles.
Women are powerful, intelligent, and driven, which shows in their work. The STEM field is being taken over by women, and it is a sight to see. As women, we must work together and bring each other up in our careers. It is hard working in male-dominated careers, but women are now taking one of them. Stay strong, ladies, stand up for what you believe in, and never let anyone dull your shine.
As Mae Jemson, the first African American astronaut to go into space, said, “Don’t let anyone rob you of your imagination, creativity, or curiosity. it’s your place in the world; it’s your life. Go on, do all you can with it, and make it the life you want.”
Amelia Whyman’s article link: https://www.globalapptesting.com/blog/the-women-who-changed-the-tech-world