Programmed Inequality: How Britain Discarded Women Technologists and Lost Its Edge in Computing

Marie Hicks

Why and how did men displace the women who once made up most of Britain's computing workforce, and what did the country lose?

At a glance

You will question the assumption that when a field becomes male dominated, the work must have become harder
You will learn to notice when status and pay follow gender rather than skill
You will see how sidelining skilled workers can leave an industry weaker, a lesson for today's tech labor market

Introduction: Britain’s Computer “Revolution”
1 War Machines: Women’s Computing Work and the Underpinnings of the Data-Driven State, 1930–1946
2 Data Processing in Peacetime: Institutionalizing a Feminized Machine Underclass, 1946–1955
3 Luck and Labor Shortage: Gender Flux, Professionalization, and Growing Opportunities for Computer Workers, 1955–1967
4 The Rise of the Technocrat: How State Attempts to Centralize Power through Computing Went Astray, 1965–1969
5 The End of White Heat and the Failure of British Technocracy, 1969–1979
Conclusion: Reassembling the History of Computing around Gender’s Formative Influence
Appendix: Timeline of Key Events