[upbeat music] Today, 73% of the field of computer science is comprised of men, but women have a long history in computing, so why don't we know their stories?

And how did the number of women in the field drop so low?

[upbeat music] "Hidden Figures," both the film and the book, introduced audiences around the world to some of the women who worked as engineers and early human computers-- AKA advanced mathematicians at NASA.

And these weren't the only singular figures, since for a good portion of computing history, women played a significant role.

But today, women are underrepresented in computer science, and we are rarely shown images of women in the field.

But, even though this is our present reality, it wasn't always the case.

So, first we need to ask ourselves: Were there any women in early computing history?

The short and resounding answer to that question is "yes."

Women were an integral part of computer science from its earliest inceptions.

For example, mathematician Ada Lovelace is still considered the world's first computer programmer for her collaboration with Charles Babbage on his designs for a digital programmable computer called the "analytic engine."

And that was as early as 1842, even though the machine was never built and her insights couldn't be tested at the time.

And throughout the 20th century, there were numerous well-known women in the fields of computer science and programming, including the three featured in "Hidden Figures"-- Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, whose work was instrumental in promoting U.S. interests during the space race.

Other noted figures include computer scientist and U.S. Navy rear admiral Dr. Grace Hopper, who was one of the first programmers on the Harvard Mark I Computer.

In 1958, Elsie Schutt opened Comp Inc, one of the first software companies in the world, and it was staffed entirely by women.

In 1946, six women programmed the ENIAC computer at the University of Pennsylvania, which was the first electronic and programmable computer.

But, when the project was revealed to the public that same year, the six women's names were left out of the story.

But the reality is that, in the early half of the 20th century, especially after World War II, many women were encouraged to enter the field as human computers, or expert mathematicians.

That's in part because with so many men enlisted to fight during the war, jobs in many fields were looking to hire women to fill those vacancies, and computer science and programming were no different.

In fact, the ENIAC computer was a project run by the U.S. Army, and could be used to run ballistic trajectories.

So, as the war raged on, women with degrees in math were in high demand to start working in the field as mathematicians and early programmers, many of whom were self-taught.

In fact, after the 1960s, the number of women in computer science was on the rise, with women majoring in computer science rising steadily from 1960 until about 1984.

That's in part because of the increased job opportunities in the field, and in part because women were actively encouraged to enter it.

But the reason computer programming was seen as a field that was "natural for women" was due to outdated and sexist ideas about the kinds of jobs that women were suited for.

At the time, men considered building computer hardware to be the real skill-oriented or challenging job, while relegating computer programming to skills they associated with secretarial labor, like typing, filing, and operating a telephone switchboard.

In 1967, "Cosmopolitan" magazine ran an article titled "The Computer Girls," about how smart and savvy modern women could enter the field as computer programmers in order to earn higher wages.

So, male engineers were assigned roles developing computer hardware, and women were responsible for a good deal of the programming.

So, that brings us to our next question: If women played a significant role in early programming, then when did we start assuming that computer programming could only be done by men?

Well, that all began to change around the end of the 1960s.

Men in computer programming looked to increase the visibility of their field and advance their own positions, and part of that strategy included decreasing the number of women.

They created their own professional organizations and educational requirements to exclude the women already working as programmers and discourage new women from entering the field.

There were male-biased tests, including a skewed personality test that basically equated presumably masculine traits with programmers, and exams were men shared the answers with other men in their professional associations.

And computer-industry ad campaigns ran sexist slogans that claimed that women were linked to human error and inefficiency, despite the fact that many of them pioneered computer programming.

But this occurred decades ago, so that brings us to our final question: Why is there still such a large gap in the number of men versus women in computer-programming- related fields, and why is the field represented as male-centric today?

Well, according to NPR's "Planet Money," this all started to shift around 1984.

As home computers and video games entered the market, ad campaigns were run that represented these new innovations as toys and devices that should be targeted towards young boys.

In fact, these ads focused almost exclusively on getting young boys interested in owning computers or working in that field.

In 1984, 37% of computer- science majors were women.

By 2014, that number had dropped to 18%.

And a recent study of data from GitHub, a San-Francisco-based, open-floor software community, found that women's coding suggestions were more likely to be approved and shared on the site over those suggested by men, but only if their gender wasn't revealed.

And, if you're worried about the sample size, the researchers analyzed 1.4 million members.

But a recent study shows that girls who have inspiring and encouraging teachers in computer-related classes as early as middle school are far more likely to enter the field later in life, especially if a woman is leading the class or they have positive reinforcement.

CEO and founder of Girls Who Code, Reshma Saujani, says: "I think for girls, you cannot be what you cannot see, "and so when you have positive role models "teaching them computer science, "talking about the pioneers of computer science, "the impossible seems possible, and they then can imagine a place in the field for themselves."

So, it's important to start young since 74% of women working in computing fields today were exposed to coding in middle school.

Well, despite what we see today about stereotypes that women either aren't equipped for or naturally inclined towards jobs in computer programming, women were actively involved in shaping the field.

It wasn't until a combination of factors such as computer programming becoming more prestigious, discrimination in the field based on gender, and the 1980s branding of computers and video games as interests for young boys, that we started to see a rapid decline in women interested in entering the field, even though women in other STEM fields has steadily increased over the same time period.

But there is hope, since programs like Girls Who Code are geared towards increasing girls' involvement in coding from an early age and bringing women back to their historic levels of involvement in computer science.

So, what do you think?

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