From string theory to clothes wringers: A historical map of women shaping science and technology

Many of our public spaces have been designed predominantly by men, and this includes online spaces. For instance, Twitter was recently critiqued for having an all-male board of directors even though Twitter users are more likely to be female. Fewer than 15% of Wikipedia contributors are women, and Wikipedia has been criticised for its unequal representation and insulting categorisation of entries on women, even with efforts to have more women editors.

This inequality perpetuates the idea that technology is a male domain, and women in the field often face discrimination and harassment. When women are invisible as leaders, creators, and agents of change, our contributions to the development of technology disappear. When women are silenced, our diverse realities are not reflected in the norms and priorities that shape the spaces we create.

Many women have led the way – creating innovative tools, connecting us to digital spaces and speaking out when we’re not included. Celebrate the techies, developers and innovators who have inspired with their persistence, resilience and creativity. Rewrite women and grrls into the story! Keep women from being forgotten. Write women back into the tech story.

This timeline, which is part of the Global Information Society Watch 2013 edition on “Women´s rights, gender and ICTs”, is one of our contributions to celebrate women´s achievements and give proper recognition to all their hard work.