March is Girls’s Historical past Month, the place we have fun and pay tribute to the ladies who’ve performed a significant function all through American historical past. Inside the tech trade, ladies have all the time been on the forefront of innovation and progress — though these days, ladies make up solely 28% of the tech trade workforce.
To shed some mild on the distinctive challenges that girls face within the tech trade, we’ve compiled a listing of ebook suggestions about ladies working in tech over time. From a biography of a girl cryptanalyst throughout World Warfare II, to a memoir from a software program engineer in Silicon Valley throughout the dotcom growth, there are such a lot of shifting tales so as to add to your want-to-read record.
Studying these books will assist you higher perceive tech’s “herstory,” and hopefully encourage you to work in the direction of gender equality in your personal skilled life.
Half memoir, half assortment of essays, veteran programmer Ellen Ullman’s most up-to-date ebook paints a vivid image of what it was wish to be a girl engineer throughout the early days of the dotcom growth. Life in Code is filled with fascinating anecdotes (just like the time the Google co-founders provided Ellen a job at a celebration and he or she turned it down) and significant reflections in regards to the energy of programming. BTW, should you haven’t learn her hit 1997 ebook Near the Machine, it’s best to undoubtedly add that one to your record, too! Purchase it right here.
Study in regards to the historical past of the web by the lens of the pioneering ladies who constructed it. From the nineteenth century to current day, the ebook Broad Band spotlights ladies who had an enduring impression on the web, like Ada Lovelace, Grace Hopper, and the ENIAC Six. You don’t should be a historical past buff to understand this fascinating assortment of tales. Purchase it right here.
Whether or not you’re an engineering apprentice or are managing a group of builders for the primary time, you’ll discover office knowledge on this ebook by Raji Rajagopalan, Director of Engineering at Microsoft. Raji shares tales about her personal expertise being a first-generation immigrant in America and navigating being a girl of colour in tech. She additionally shares sensible recommendation that helped her alongside the best way — like how to deal with public talking nerves and get higher at storytelling. Purchase it right here.
You may keep in mind seeing the information headlines about Ellen Pao in 2015, and the gender discrimination lawsuit she filed towards her employer, a distinguished enterprise capital agency in Silicon Valley. The case was a lightning rod for discussions about sexism inside tech. On this ebook, Ellen, who’s the previous CEO of Reddit, shares her story about being a girl of colour and whistleblower in a predominantly white male trade. Purchase it right here.
Although it was printed practically a decade in the past, this highly effective ebook of essays and first-person anecdotes written by ladies in STEM continues to be related in the present day. Every chapter is a separate crowd-sourced essay by a girl whose work entails innovation and entrepreneurship, together with some huge names in tech, like Megan Smith, former Google VP and Chief Expertise Officer of america, Kim Polese, who was the founding product supervisor for Java, and Silicon Valley enterprise capitalist Heidi Roizer. Innovating Girls sheds vital mild on the significant contributions ladies have made within the tech trade, whereas additionally acknowledging the realities of gender bias. Purchase it right here.
In case you’re studying about knowledge science or working in the direction of a profession in knowledge science, this ebook is a must-read. Invisible Girls breaks down all the methods during which gender bias and discrimination towards ladies is ingrained in knowledge that drives essential choices in our trendy world. Although the findings are eye-opening (and downright maddening), studying this ebook will encourage you to concentrate to variety in datasets that you just work together with in your personal work. Purchase it right here.
It is a fascinating true story about Elizebeth Smith, a girl who went from learning languages and Shakespeare to changing into America’s first feminine cryptanalyst. Elizabeth was extremely expert in “code-breaking,” which is a means of decrypting code or cipher messages to uncover hidden info. She labored as a cryptanalyst throughout each World Wars, and went on to work for the U.S. Navy, Treasury, Coast Guard, and Military. Purchase it right here.
Need much more tech books? Codecademy has tons of suggestions for riveting and helpful reads. Try this record of tech books written by Black authors, books that make nice presents for technologists, and extra.
