Women have made enormous contributions to creativity, science, and technology throughout history. Global economies depend heavily on the rising involvement of women and girls in digital innovation and technology as well as their involvement as students and professionals in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
A study published by the Havard Business Review, found that diverse teams develop more innovative ideas. When people of different genders and walks of life work together, they bring unique perspective resulting in greater creativity. The Next Einstein Forum (NEF), Africa’s global forum for science in Africa, puts it best “A state that does not educate and train women is like a man who only trains his right arm. Union Finance Minister of India, Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech 2023 said “Nari Shakti is the harbinger of India’s bright future.
If we look at the world, women hold 28% of all jobs computer & mathematical occupations and 15.9% of jobs in engineering and architecture occupations. In India, today of the 5 million professionals in the IT sector, about 36% are women, and it is increasing year by year which.
Women played a crucial role in innovation, science & technology in the whole world, have you ever come across the name of Ada Lovelace, the world’s first computer programmer, Augusta Ada King, the Right Honourable Countess of Lovelace, later known as Ada Lovelace, is considered to have written instructions for the first computer program in the mid-1800s. Ada displayed her mathematical aptitude at an early age. At the age of 12, she designed a steam-powered flight machine. In her late teens, she was asked to translate an article on Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine that had been written by Italian engineer Luigi Federico Menabrea for a Swiss journal. Aside from translating the original French text into English, Ada also added her own thoughts and ideas about the machine. We have all other notable profiles of female leaders in the field of innovation, science and technology like *Grace Hopper, the esteemed computer scientist, her work led to the development of COBOL, an early programming language we are still using this day. In 1947 Grace Hopper recorded the worlds 1st ever real computer bug.
Heddy Lammar, the inventor of WIFI, Lamarr invented WIFI, GPS & bluetooth technology commonly used in the modern world. Radia Perlman, the mother of the Internet, her invention of the algorithm behind the spanning tree protocol (STP) was instrumental in making today’s internet possible.
Katherine Johnson, the NASA Mathematician, trajectory analysis as a Mathematician for NASA was crucial to the success of the 1st ever US space flight. These are a few names of some wonderful women who worked at a crucial juncture in the field of science & technology.
When it comes to India, it has a rich pool of talented women who have and continue to enormously contribute towards the growth of innovation, science & technology.
Dr Tessy Thomas, also known as ‘The Missile Woman of India’, who is a prominent scientist of the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO). Breaking barriers in the field, Dr Tessy designed the navigation scheme for the long-range missile systems, which are used in all Agni missiles. She received the Agni Self reliance Award for Self-Help and has received several scholarships and honorary doctorates over the years.
Ritu Karidhar, the rocket women of India who was the director of the Chandrayan 2 mission. Mangala Manni, the polar women of ISRO who was ISRO’S 1st women scientist to have spend more than a year in Antarctica. Chandrima Shaha, 1st female president of Nation Academy Of Sciences (INSA)
So women are breaking stereotypes in the scientific community, paving the path for others to follow. The purpose of this brief history lesson is to provide some background about the status of women in science, technology and innovation back then and compare their previous position to their current one today in the 21st century so there remains no doubt that women will continue to break barriers, passing on positive values, education, knowledge, and experiences to the next generation, thereby, contributing immensely towards the overall development of the society. (END)
The writer of this column Iqrar Rashid Dev is a student of B.Sc at Govt. Degree College Beerwah can be reached at: daveiqrar7298@gmail.com
