Submission + - What Bell Labs was like c.1967 1
niittyniemi writes: There's a rather interesting photo-gallery over at The Guardian
which gives an indication of what life was like at Bell Labs c.1967.
This was the year that Dennis Ritchie joined Bell Labs and went on to produce a body of work which has been pretty much unrivalled in its influence on the modern computing landscape, even some 50 years later.
What's noticeable about the pictures, is that they are of woman. I don't think this is a result of the photographer just photographing "eye candy". I think it's because he was surrounded by women, whom from his comments he very much respected and hence photographed.
In those times, wrangling with a computer was very much seen as "clerical work" and therefore the domain of woman. This can be seen as far back as Bletchley Park and before that Ada Lovelace.
Yet 50 years later, the IT industry has turned full-circle. Look at any IT company and the percentage of women doing software development or similar is woeful. Why and how has this happened? Discuss.
This was the year that Dennis Ritchie joined Bell Labs and went on to produce a body of work which has been pretty much unrivalled in its influence on the modern computing landscape, even some 50 years later.
What's noticeable about the pictures, is that they are of woman. I don't think this is a result of the photographer just photographing "eye candy". I think it's because he was surrounded by women, whom from his comments he very much respected and hence photographed.
In those times, wrangling with a computer was very much seen as "clerical work" and therefore the domain of woman. This can be seen as far back as Bletchley Park and before that Ada Lovelace.
Yet 50 years later, the IT industry has turned full-circle. Look at any IT company and the percentage of women doing software development or similar is woeful. Why and how has this happened? Discuss.
