Contextualizing the Google Manifesto
August 12, 2017
#media
#research
“We’re just starting to acknowledge the work that these women did — but that’s a fault of our history, not a function of their lack of presence. They were invisible, but they weren’t absent.”1 The recent publication of an anti-diversity memo by a Google engineer has provoked some thoughtful (and not-so-thoughtful) responses. It has also encouraged a renewed interest in my research on the history of women in computing and on the emergence of a hyper-masculine computing culture in the late 1970s. If you are interested in more of this history, see the work of Janet Abbate and Marie Hicks, as well as the excellent edited volume by Tom Misa called Gender Codes: Why Women are Leaving Computing. If you are really interested in this topic, see the syllabus and comprehensive bibliography I developed for my recent graduate seminar on gender and technology. It is always interesting to watch how your academic research moves out into public conversations. In this case, I am pleased and honored that my historical research has informed so many of the responses to the Google Manifesto: NY Times: Tech’s Damaging Myth of the Loner Genius Nerd
Time Magazine: Women in Tech and the History Behind That Controversial Google Diversity Memo
The Verge: Science Doesn’t Explain Tech’s Diversity Problem — History Does
Bloomberg: How Women Got Crowded Out of the Computing Revolution
Pacific Standard: What Google Bros Have In Common With Medieval Beer Bros
Hackerdom: A Brief History of Women in Computing
Der Tagespiel: Die Tech-Branche und ihr Sexismusproblem
Nova Economia: Google acerta ao demitir engenheiro acusado de misoginia