Closed-captioning available on Youtube.
In this episode of Perspectives, we speak with Mar Hicks, author of Programmed Inequality: How Britain Discarded Women Technologists and Lost Its Edge in Computing.
In their book, Professor Hicks explores the history of the British computing industry during and after World War II. Hicks notes that British computing was world-leading in the mid-twentieth century at a time when women occupied most computer programmer, operator, and systems administrator roles. However, during the 1960s, as British industry and the civil service realized the importance of computing and looked to hire "management material"—men with a classical education and often without technical training—British computing fell into a doldrums from which it never recovered.
Dr. Hicks describes how class and gender formed overlapping barriers to employment and equal treatment in British computing jobs in the second half of the twentieth century, and how these barriers continue to impact both employment in the computer industry and the design of information technologies. Hicks delves into the ever-present conflict between centralization and decentralization in computing, showing how centralization—although not always negative—is often championed because of its ability to concentrate power and produce efficiencies, but at the cost of workers' and citizens' civil rights and personal freedoms. At the same time, decentralization—although not always positive—often allows for a degree of privacy and self-determination that conflicts with the way computers and information technologies have been designed in recent decades.
To cite this podcast, please use footnote:
Mar Hicks, interview, Perspectives, Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine, December 16, 2021, /video/132.
Mar Hicks is Associate Professor of History of Technology in the Humanities Department at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Dr. Hicks received their Ph.D. in History from Duke University.