2017 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Genders and Sexualities

June 01 - 04, 2017

This panel conveys the breadth of inter-disciplinary scholarly interest in the historical and current role of women in the computing professions and the associated gender issues.  At the 2015 Society for History Technology (SHOT) conference multiple panels and papers addressed the history of women in computing and the Women in Technological History (WITH) Special Interest Group (SIG) within the SHOT Conference supported scholars, such as Sarah McLennan, who delivered a paper dealing with her research on African American women in the NASA Langley program during and after World War II. Recent books, including Janet Abbate’s Recoding Gender and Karla Mantilla’s Gendertrolling embrace  historical, sociological, and feminist studies research methods and analysis to consider not only women’s contributions to programming, gaming, and the blogosphere, but also the misogynistic culture and context in which they have made these contributions.  After completing her BS in Science, Technology, and Culture, Kera Allen “worked for a technology company contributing to the development, support, and implementation of software,” and is now a Research Fellow in the Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship at Georgia Tech (IGERT). She combines sociological and historical methodologies to explore women in computing professions, as well as current efforts to foster girls’ interests in STEM careers and the continuing barriers faced by that effort.  Bringing scholars together from the fields of Feminist and Women Studies, the History of Technology and Science, STS, and Sociology, this panel hopes to encourage discussion, further research, and foster political and social action.