Historical Facts about Women in Computing: Anita Borg

Women in the History of Computing Technology

"Women will change the corporation more than we expect."

"I want all of these folks connected. We're all doing too much reinventing of the wheel, ... The Internet enables us to share the ideas we have without having to create another hierarchy. We hope that these two projects will come together and create a structure of continued involvement."

Anita Borg

Anita Borg

Bearer of the Pioneer Award from the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Augusta Ada Lovelace Award from the Association of Women in Computing, Anita Borg is undoubtedly the computer scientist who contributed the most to the cause of introduction of women to the field of computer technologies. Highly respected as a professional, she makes her greatest mark as a mentor of young women in a career that has traditionally been considered a man’s field.

Anita Borg Naffz was born in 1949 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She spends her childhood in Palatine, Illinois, Kaneohe, Hawaii, and Mukilteo, Washington. As a student, Anita shows interest in mathematics. It is not until she attends New York University, however, that her bent for computer science comes into sight. She receives her Ph.D. from the same university in 1981 after writing a dissertation on the highly technical subject of principles of operating systems.

After graduation, Borg works for different computer companies. She spends twelve years in Digital Equipment’s Western Research Laboratory and then gets a position as consultant engineer in the Network Systems Laboratory in Palo Alto, California. One of her most important achievements is related to the MECCA Communications and Information Systems Project for which she develops and patents a method for generating complete address traces applicable in the analysis and design of high-speed memory systems.

Anita Borg

In 1987, after attending a technical conference where she was one of a handful of women scientists present, Dr. Borg starts Systers, an electronic mailing list exclusively for female engineers on subjects related to technology. Since then her passion to study computers transforms into an aspiration for using computers to link people. The Systers list grows to include more than 2,500 women in 38 different countries. It is run by Anita herself until 2000.

Dr. Maria Klawe, dean of the engineering faculty at Princeton University, longtime friend of Anita Borg, member of Systers for more than 15 years, and current president of the Association of Computer Machinery (ACM), defines the support she got from her colleague’s mailing list as the most important factor in her professional development that, also, helped her achieve her high position in ACM.

In 1994, Borg co-founds the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women, a technical conference held every two years that focuses on the career and research interests of women in information and computer sciences.

Anita leaves Digital Equipment’s Western Research Laboratory in 1997 and joins the Xerox Corporation’s Palo Alto Research Center. Soon after starting her new job, she founds the Institute for Women and Technology (I.W.T.), a nonprofit organization which main goal is to encourage young women to enter the technology industry. In 2003, after Dr. Borg dies, the institute’s name is changed into The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology. The organization is highly supported by major companies in the computer branch. It receives $150,000 in funding from Sun Microsystems and Xerox, as well as resources and personnel from Lotus Software (now a division of IBM), Carnegie Mellon University, and Boston University.

Anita Borg

Since its foundation, the ABI has continued to grow each year. In 2007 it more than doubled the number of its sponsors to 14 and its programs reached women its 23 countries worldwide.

In her professional career as a computer scientist and as a mentor of young women in technology, Dr. Borg receives many awards, including Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Pioneer Award and the Augusta Ada Lovelace Award from the Association of Women in Computing. In 1998, she is inducted into the Hall of Fame of Women in Technology International. In 1999, US President Bill Clinton appoints her to the Presidential Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering, and Technology; she is charged with recommending strategies to the nation for increasing the breadth of participation fields for women. In 2002, Anita is awarded the 8th Annual Heinz Award for Technology, the Economy and Employment.

Anita Borg dies of brain cancer in 2003. To honor her contribution to the integration of women in the field of computer and information technology, in 2004, Google establishes the Google Anita Borg Scholarship, through which they hope to continue her mission to encourage women to excel in computing and technology and become active leaders in the branch.

Sources

The information presented above is taken from the following online sources: