The earliest computer programmers were women and the programming field was once stereotyped as female
One of the best books I’ve read about the transition from computing as a female- to male-dominanted area of work is Ensmenger’s The Computer Boys Take Over: Computers, Programmers, and the Politics of Technical Expertise.
It’s a remarkable book that details – with precision – how labour changes combined with new understandings of what ‘goes into’ computer work led to the defeminization of not just the people working on computers but the very tropes and language associated with the same kind(s) of work. Highly, highly recommended.
Excited Pixels 