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Elsie Shutt (née Goedeke, born 1928) is an American technology entrepreneur. She founded Computations Incorporated (CompInc.) in 1958.[1] She was among the first women to establish a software business in the United States.[2][3][4]
Elsie Shutt | |
|---|---|
| Born | Elsie Goedeke 1928 (age 95–96) |
| Education | Goucher College (B.A.) |
| Occupation |
|
| Known for | “The excitement of designing a system: . . . finding out what the problem is; analyzing it; designing something that will make it work; doing it; seeing it work, and having a client who is happy with it. That’s very satisfying.” - Elsie Shutt, 2001 |
Early life and education
editElsie Shutt was born in New York City and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, USA.[1] Her father died when she was four years old.[1] As a result, she was predominantly raised by her mother and her maternal grandfather with whom she and her mother lived with in Baltimore.[1] She attended Eastern High School in Baltimore and graduated at the age of 16.[1] Shutt graduated from Goucher College as a math major with a minor in chemistry at the age of 20.[1] After receiving a Pepsi-Cola graduate fellowship for graduate school she covered full tuition and some living expenses, Shutt continued her math studies at Radcliffe College.[1]
Career
editEarly years
editShutt learned to program on the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) under Dick Clippinger during a summer job at the U.S. Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.[3][5] In 1953, Shutt was hired at Raytheon (an aerospace and defense manufacturing company), where she worked on software for the Raycom computer.[3][6] By 1957, Shutt was working as a freelance programmer from her home, and in 1958 she founded her company 'Computations Incorporated'.
Computations, Incorporated (CompInc.)
editElsie Shutt's founding of Computations Incorporated was a development for gender equality in computer science–a historically male-dominated field. According to Janet Abbate, author of Recoding Gender: Women's Changing Participation in Computing, Shutt was among the early pioneers who showed that women could excel in programming and systems analysis while also managing family responsibilities.
CompInc became renowned for its high-quality software solutions, which were provided to major clients such as Raytheon and the U.S. Air Force.[7][1][8] Shutt led the company for more than 45 years. Preferentially hiring women with young children, Shutt worked to increase women's chances of obtaining programming employment.[9] The company also offered additional training programs to low-experience employees.[9]
The company utilized systems analysis and design along with programming help for primary clients.[9][8] Computations, Inc. also emphasized “desk-checking” between employees, manually reviewing each other's code. At its peak, her company entered into contracts with Minneapolis-Honeywell,[8] Raytheon,[8] St. Regis Paper Co.,[8] Harvard University,[8] The University of Rochester,[8] and the United States Air Force.[8][10]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h "Oral-History:Elsie Shutt - Engineering and Technology History Wiki". Ethw.org. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
- ^ "Episode 576: When Women Stopped Coding". NPR.org. Archived from the original on 2018-08-09. Retrieved 2018-08-12.
- ^ a b c Janet Abbate (2012). Recoding Gender: Women's Changing Participation in Computing. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-01806-7.
- ^ Janet Abbate (21 October 2014). "The women who shaped the computer age". Theweek.com.
- ^ Thompson, Clive (13 February 2019). "The Secret History of Women in Coding". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
- ^ Eliana Keinan (2017). "A New Frontier: But for Whom? An Analysis of the Micro-Computer and Women's Declining Participation in Computer Science". Scholarship.claremont.edu. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
- ^ "Recoding Gender". MIT Press. Retrieved 2024-09-17.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Mixing Math and Motherhood". Business Week: 86–87. March 1963.
- ^ a b c Janet Abbate (2012). Recoding Gender: Women's Changing Participation in Computing. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-01806-7.
- ^ Betty Friedan (1998). It Changed My Life: Writings on the Women's Movement. Harvard University Press. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-674-46885-6.