African-American women in computer science were among early pioneers in computing in theUnited States, and there are notable African-American women working incomputer science.
African-American women were hired as mathematicians to do technical computing needed to support aeronautical and other research. They included such women asKatherine G. Johnson andDorothy Vaughan, who had careers of decades atNASA.[1] Among Johnson's projects was calculating the flight path for the United States' first mission into space in 1961. She is credited as co-author of 26 scientific papers. The practice in 1960 was to list only the head of the division as author. The crediting of Johnson as an author in a peer-reviewed NASA report is significant.[2]
Black women were also among theENIAC programmers,[3] who programmed the first digital computer for the US Army. Their stories have not been documented. Given the dearth of information regarding the contributions of women in early computer science, it is likely that other Black women have made significant contributions to computer science and society.[4]
TheAssociation for Computing Machinery (ACM) was founded in 1947, but computer science developed later as an academic field. In 1969,Clarence "Skip" Ellis became the first Black man to earn a doctorate degree in computer science. In 1981,Deborah Washington Brown became the first Black woman to earn a doctorate degree in computer science (then part of the applied mathematics program) from Harvard University.[5] A year later, in 1982Marsha R. Williams[6] further integrated the field when she earned her doctorate degree in computer science.[7]
In the mid-1980s, the representation of women in computer science peaked at approximately 40%.[8] The decline in the representation of women has been attributed by some analysts to the increased marketing of personal computers and video games to boys.
There has been a decline in women of all races in computing in the United States; the representation of Black women in the field has continued to be lower than that of white female peers. For example, in 1985 when the number of women in computing was at a high, 77% of the related degrees were earned by White women, while fewer than 8% were earned by Black women.[9] In 2002, 1.3% of the computer science doctorate degrees earned were awarded to Black women. In 2017, two female computer scientistsTimnit Gebru andRediet Abebe founded the workshopBlack in AI, in order to help increase the presence and inclusion of Black people in the field ofartificial intelligence (AI).[10][11]
Computer Science Degree Completion Rates for Black and White Women(from IPEDS Completion Survey by Race)
Year
Black Women (degrees)
White Women (degrees)
1977
139 (BS), 26 (MS), 0 (PhD)
1,275 (BS), 364 (MS), 18 (PhD)
1987
1,536 (BS), 81 (MS), 1 (PhD)
9,388 (BS), 1,488 (MS), 40 (PhD)
1997
1,179 (BS), 182 (MS), 1 (PhD)
3,599 (BS), 965 (MS), 66 (PhD)
2007
1,624 (BS), 345 (MS), 12 (PhD)
3,620 (BS), 1,141 (MS), 81 (PhD)
Between 1977 and 2013 (the years in which data has been recorded by the NCES), the greatest number of Black women to earn a doctorate degree in computer science in one year was 10 (2008).
In 2012, theComputing Research Association (CRA) Taulbee Survey reported there were "merely 56 Black/African American computer science tenure-track faculty members at PhD-granting institutions, which includes 12 (or 0.6%), 21 (or 1.4%), and 23 (or 3.0%) Full, Associate, and Assistant Professors, respectively."[17]
This is adynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help byediting the page to add missing items, with references toreliable sources.
The following is a list of notable Black women in computer science, in alphabetical order by last name:
^Williams, Marsha Rhea (1982). "The design of the Computer Assisted Query Language (CAQL) System".OCLC12957337.{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)
Cheryan, S., Drury, B.J., & Vichayapai, M. "Enduring influence of stereotypical computer science role models on women’s academic aspirations."Psychology of Women Quarterly (2013) 37:72–79 doi:10.1177/0361684312459328
Hanson, S. L. "African American women in science: Experiences from high school through the postsecondary years and beyond".NWSA Journal (2004) 16:96–115.JSTOR4317036
Sanders, Yolanda. "Voices of African American Women in Computer Science: Implications for K-12 Stem Education and Beyond" (PhD. Diss. Loyola University Chicago, 2020)excerpt.
