ENIAC Programmers Project

Kathy Kleiman and Kathleen McNulty Mauchly Antonelli at ENIAC reunion

Kathy Kleiman and the ENIAC Programmers Project are ambitious in our goal of finding and recording the missing histories of women in early programming. We will continue to seek recognition for these programming pioneers and to share their inspiring stories with students and adults at schools and colleges, conferences and STEM festivals, veterans’ groups and book clubs.

To remove barriers, reverse stereotypes, and throw open the doors for everyone to explore computing and STEM careers, please join us in:

1. Sharing the ENIAC Programmers Story with a class, a group, your book club.

One idea: Buy Proving Ground books for a local high school class and join their discussion. Grand Central Publishing offers a Reading Group Guide here.

2. Finding the stories of UNIVAC pioneers.

Many on the team that created ENIAC, including John Mauchly, J. Presper Eckert, Betty Snyder Holberton, Jean Jennings Bartik, moved to Eckert Mauchly Computer Corporation (EMCC) to create UNIVAC, the first modern commercial computer. The policy of EMCC was simple: hire brilliant engineers and programmers who could think outside the box regardless of gender, race or religion. Inclusion at the very beginning of our computing history! (Kathy Kleiman’s first oral history was with Adele Mildred Koss, a programmer at EMCC (1950s) who retired as VP of Information Technology at Harvard Univ. in the 1990s! Now part of the Schlesinger Library Women’s Archives at Harvard) These are incredible stories that need to be found and then shared!

3. Documenting the great work of women in computing in the 1960s and 1970s.

There is a rumor among some younger computer historians that women did not have robust careers in computing in the 1960s and 1970s, and worked only in data entry and clerical work. After you finish hissing, help us share the stories of great programming innovators Jean Sammet, Fran Allen, Betty Holberton, Thelma Estrin, Evelyn Boyd Granville, Dana Ulery, Adele Goldberg, Mary Allen Wilkes, Dame Stephanie Shirley, and of course, Rear Admiral Grace Hopper and Dr. Anita Borg, and let’s collect many more! We will strive to find many stories of women’s innovation in the 1960s and 1970s and put these rumors to rest forever!

4. Creating STEM Camps to help everyone explore careers in STEM.

In our work, we found that girls and boys often learn about STEM careers from their family members in STEM. But for other students, the barriers are higher. How can we help open the doors to computing and STEM for all? The ENIAC Programmers Project seeks to create hands-on camp programs to introduce students to a wide variety of STEM jobs (with a variety of education requirements). Future STEM jobs need diverse perspectives and offer creative, challenging, and fun opportunities. Everyone with an interest should know the doors are open. Please join us in this enjoyable activity!