WEBVTT - Love the internet? Thank women!

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Welcome to

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<v Speaker 1>tech Stuff a production of iHeartRadio How the Tech Area.

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<v Speaker 1>As you can probably tell from my voice, I am

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<v Speaker 1>not Jonathan Strickland. My name is bridget Toad, and I'm

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<v Speaker 1>the host of iHeartRadio's Tech and culture podcasts. There are

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<v Speaker 1>no girls on the Internet. Jonathan is actually the executive

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<v Speaker 1>producer of my podcast, and he was kind enough to

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<v Speaker 1>pass me the mic in honor of Women's History Month,

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<v Speaker 1>because talking about the ways that women have shaped technology

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<v Speaker 1>is kind of my jam on my podcast. There are

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<v Speaker 1>no girls on the Internet. We talk all about the

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<v Speaker 1>overlooked ways that women, people of color, transpolkes, queer folks,

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<v Speaker 1>and everybody in between has helped shape what technology looks

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<v Speaker 1>like and what it means to be online. Women have

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<v Speaker 1>architected much of the infrastructure of technology and the Internet,

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<v Speaker 1>but for lots of reasons. For one, women being more

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<v Speaker 1>associated with software as opposed to hardware, which is a

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<v Speaker 1>bit more difficult to preserve, and of course good old

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<v Speaker 1>fashioned sexism, our contributions go easily overlooked. So in honor

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<v Speaker 1>of Women's History Month, I'd like to tell you about

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<v Speaker 1>two women who have been foundational to shaping what it

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<v Speaker 1>looks and feels like to be online. So let's start

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<v Speaker 1>with Macgirls Susan Kare and talk about how a sculptor

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<v Speaker 1>with no tech background change the history of personal computing.

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<v Speaker 1>Susan Kare is an artist and graphic designer best known

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<v Speaker 1>for her interface elements and typeface contributions to the very

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<v Speaker 1>first Apple Macintosh, where she worked from nineteen eighty three

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<v Speaker 1>to nineteen eighty six. She was Apple's tent employee. Susan

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<v Speaker 1>Karer helped design a big part of what it looks

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<v Speaker 1>like to use a computer, and you can still see

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<v Speaker 1>her legacy today. Remember hers that iconic episode of Sex

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<v Speaker 1>in the City when Carrie Bradshaw's laptop computer crashes and

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<v Speaker 1>she gets that sad Mac face. Well, that sad Mac

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<v Speaker 1>was designed by Susan Karer. So if you've spent any

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<v Speaker 1>time at all around Max, then you know Susankare's work.

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<v Speaker 1>You should definitely google a picture of what Susan Kare

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<v Speaker 1>who looks like in the eighties, because there is an

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<v Speaker 1>iconic image of her that you should definitely see. She's

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<v Speaker 1>got an amazing like curly afro, She's wearing the slouchy

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<v Speaker 1>gray sweatshirt and the slouchy jeans. She's got her feet

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<v Speaker 1>kicked up on her desk at Apple, and her feet

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<v Speaker 1>are right next to one of those amazing gray boxy

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<v Speaker 1>early Apple computers. Definitely look it up. It is an

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<v Speaker 1>amazing iconic image. So Kara first got interested in graphic

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<v Speaker 1>design after her mother taught her needle point and embroidery

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<v Speaker 1>as a child, which works in small grids. It just

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<v Speaker 1>so happened that I had small black and white grids

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<v Speaker 1>to work with. She recalls, the process reminded me of

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<v Speaker 1>working with needlepoint knitting patterns and mosaics. I was lucky

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<v Speaker 1>to have had a mother who enjoyed crafts, So needle

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<v Speaker 1>point and crafting, you know, these pursuits that we kind

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<v Speaker 1>of think of as traditionally feminine really shaped Susan Kare's

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<v Speaker 1>work in technology. This is actually one of the reasons

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<v Speaker 1>why I love Susan Kare's story and legacy so much

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<v Speaker 1>is that she didn't have a traditional tech background. I

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<v Speaker 1>think so often, particularly for women, it can feel like

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<v Speaker 1>if you're not an engineer or a coder, you don't

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<v Speaker 1>really have a place in tech. But that attitude is incorrect,

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<v Speaker 1>not to mention very limiting technology shapes so much of

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<v Speaker 1>our lives that we all deserve to see ourselves meaningfully

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<v Speaker 1>and authentically reflected within it. And Susan Kare is a

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<v Speaker 1>great example of what I mean, because she didn't really

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<v Speaker 1>have a lot of experience with technology or even computers

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<v Speaker 1>when she first started working an Apple back in nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>eighty three. At that point in her life, she made

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<v Speaker 1>money and got experience taking pro bono graphic design jobs

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<v Speaker 1>making holiday cards and invitations. She then started working as

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<v Speaker 1>a sculptor, but didn't like it because she found it

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<v Speaker 1>to be too solitary of an artistic pursuit. A fact

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<v Speaker 1>that I love about her story is that she had

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<v Speaker 1>been elbow deep working on a life size sculpture of

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<v Speaker 1>a hog when she first got the call from Apple's

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<v Speaker 1>Andy Hurtsfield. Andy Hurtsfield was a member of the original

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<v Speaker 1>Apple Macintosh development team in the eighties, and he had

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<v Speaker 1>gone to high school with Susan Kare. He asked Susan

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<v Speaker 1>to hand draw some icons and fonts to help inspire

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<v Speaker 1>the budding mac interface. This was a completely new concept

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<v Speaker 1>for Susan Care. She said that she didn't know the

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<v Speaker 1>first thing about designing typeface, but Hurtsfeld had an idea.

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<v Speaker 1>He told Ker to find the smallest graph paper that

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<v Speaker 1>she could find, then block out thirty two by thirty

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<v Speaker 1>two inch squares to fill with color to come up

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<v Speaker 1>with designs since the matrix that she'd be designing in

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<v Speaker 1>was essentially a grid, and Lucky for Susan, her mother

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<v Speaker 1>had taught her needle point, and those needle point skills

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<v Speaker 1>came to her rescue. Bitmap graphics are like mosaics and

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<v Speaker 1>needle point and other pseudo digital art forms, all of

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<v Speaker 1>which I had practiced before going to Apple, she told

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<v Speaker 1>an interviewer in twenty twenty. Susan Care's legacy endures today.

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<v Speaker 1>She came up with the concept of associating unique document

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<v Speaker 1>icons with their creator applications, like a little image of

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<v Speaker 1>a paint bucket being the thing that you clicked to

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<v Speaker 1>fill a surface with color, or little scissors meeting cut.

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<v Speaker 1>For the copy function, she initially tried using a copy

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<v Speaker 1>machine that users were meant to drag and drop onto

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<v Speaker 1>their file to make a copy, but rendering a copy

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<v Speaker 1>machine was kind of tough to render at scale. She

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<v Speaker 1>also tried to use a cat looking in a mirror

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<v Speaker 1>to demonstrate copy. But I guess that was just like

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<v Speaker 1>too clunky of an image. So she might be thinking,

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<v Speaker 1>is this really such a big deal? Is this really

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<v Speaker 1>a big part of computers and technology? Yes, because keep

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<v Speaker 1>in mind this was during the very early days of

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<v Speaker 1>personal computers. At that time, they were still these big,

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<v Speaker 1>clunky nightmares that seemed difficult to use, and they were

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<v Speaker 1>really more inclined toward engineers or mathematicians, not regular people

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<v Speaker 1>using them in their house. All of the tasks that

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<v Speaker 1>you want to do in a computer, like throwing a

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<v Speaker 1>file in the trash or clicking a little disk to

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<v Speaker 1>save a file or not necessarily immediately obvious to people

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<v Speaker 1>who were using computers for the first time, and so

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<v Speaker 1>having those functions be simple and accessible was a big

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<v Speaker 1>part of why personal computing took off in the first place.

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<v Speaker 1>Apple specifically wanted to demystify the process of using computers

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<v Speaker 1>by having user friendly interfaces that care was foundational to designing,

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<v Speaker 1>and she also wanted to humanize the experience of using

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<v Speaker 1>a computer to reduce stress for folks who might have

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<v Speaker 1>been using them for the first time, which is why

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<v Speaker 1>when those old school max booted up, the first thing

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<v Speaker 1>that I use or saw was the happy Mac image

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<v Speaker 1>of a little computer with a smiley face, or in

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<v Speaker 1>the case of Carrie Bradshaw, if something bad happened, you

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<v Speaker 1>would get the dreaded sad Mac, a computer with a

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<v Speaker 1>frownie face. Or if you were having a really bad day,

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<v Speaker 1>you might get that bomb icon for when your system

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<v Speaker 1>was crashing. A cool thing to know about Susan Care

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<v Speaker 1>is that even though she is a very much part

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<v Speaker 1>of tech history, she is very much alive today and

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<v Speaker 1>still a big part of technology. And I think it's

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<v Speaker 1>so great when we're able to celebrate our icons and

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<v Speaker 1>our historical heroes while they're still here. Susan Care works

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<v Speaker 1>at Pinterest today or you're probably also familiar with her designs.

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<v Speaker 1>She designed the image that is modeled after a pushpin

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<v Speaker 1>to symbolize pinning something on a Pinterest and that spinning

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<v Speaker 1>button that appears when you refresh the app today. Susan

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<v Speaker 1>Care's notebooks are part of the permanent collections of the

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<v Speaker 1>New York in San Francisco Modern Art Museums, and one

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<v Speaker 1>was recently included in the recent London Design Museum exhibit

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<v Speaker 1>called California Designing Freedom. Ellen Lupton Senior Curator of Contemporary

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<v Speaker 1>Design at the Cooper Hewbitt Smithsonian Design Museum, told the

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<v Speaker 1>Smithsonian dot com. When Susan Kare helped create Apple's user

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<v Speaker 1>friendly interface in the early eighties, computers started speaking in

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<v Speaker 1>pictures instead of lines of code. Her bitmapped icons made

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<v Speaker 1>people feel welcomed and safe, even when the system crashed

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<v Speaker 1>and gave you a drawing of a bomb. Kara's original

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<v Speaker 1>bitmapped icons, built from little black squares, were eventually replaced

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<v Speaker 1>with colorful, more elaborately illustrated icons, Yet the core thinking

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<v Speaker 1>remains the same, and Karras continued to create warm and

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<v Speaker 1>accessible imagery for a range of tech companies, including Pinterest,

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<v Speaker 1>where she works today. What's interesting about Susan Kare's designs

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<v Speaker 1>are the ways that she's really shaped how we think

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<v Speaker 1>of and use computers in general. You know, when I

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<v Speaker 1>was growing up writing term papers on my dad's clunky

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<v Speaker 1>gray desktop at our computer room, I had to manually

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<v Speaker 1>hit the save button every few minutes, and the save

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<v Speaker 1>button was a little icon of a floppy disk. And

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<v Speaker 1>even though we no longer use sloppy discs, I have

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<v Speaker 1>not seen one or held one for many, many years.

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<v Speaker 1>We no longer have to hit save manually every five

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<v Speaker 1>minutes because things save automatically. The icon per save is

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<v Speaker 1>still a floppy disk. Kara told The Smithsonian about her

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<v Speaker 1>time and Apple. I loved working on that project. Always

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<v Speaker 1>felt so lucky for the opportunity to be a non

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<v Speaker 1>technical person in a software group. I was awed by

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<v Speaker 1>being able to collaborate with such a creative, capable, and

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<v Speaker 1>dedicated team of engineers. So I love talking about all

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<v Speaker 1>the overlooked figures in our history of tech and the Internet.

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<v Speaker 1>Their stories can tell us a lot about how their

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<v Speaker 1>identities often determine who gets remembered and who gets overlooked,

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<v Speaker 1>even when they literally changed the history of personal computing,

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<v Speaker 1>like Susan Kerr, or when they literally changed the world

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<v Speaker 1>like Lin Khanway did. So who is Lin Kanway? Lin

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<v Speaker 1>Kanway is an eighty five year old professor Emerita at

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<v Speaker 1>the University of Michigan of College of Engineering. And she

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<v Speaker 1>had a big hand and contributing to the modern day

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<v Speaker 1>Internet and smartphones. And because of her identity and good

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<v Speaker 1>old fashioned sexism and transphobia, her contributions were almost overlooked completely.

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<v Speaker 1>Even though Lynn Conway literally changed the world Conway was

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<v Speaker 1>born in nineteen thirty eight and was assigned mail at birth,

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<v Speaker 1>but from an early age she knew there was more

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<v Speaker 1>to her story as it pertains to gender. Her mom

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<v Speaker 1>was studying answer apology at Columbia, and she would flip

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<v Speaker 1>through her mom's text books looking for answers, telling Michigan

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<v Speaker 1>Engineering News in a really beautifully written profile about her life,

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<v Speaker 1>it seems like people in other cultures had found different

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<v Speaker 1>ways to deal with what I knew I was feeling.

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<v Speaker 1>But then that became scrambled with the thought that what

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<v Speaker 1>I was feeling was that I was gay, but no

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<v Speaker 1>one ever talked about those things. When Lynd Conway was fourteen,

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<v Speaker 1>she read a news story about a former Army private,

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<v Speaker 1>Christine Jorgensen, the first person in the United States to

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<v Speaker 1>publicly announce a gender transition. I knew then what I

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<v Speaker 1>had to do, Conway said, so, given what we know

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<v Speaker 1>about how narrowly society of view gender in the fifties

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<v Speaker 1>and the sixties, and to be honest even today, as

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<v Speaker 1>you can imagine, Conway's journey was very difficult. She initially

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<v Speaker 1>tried to transition while studying at MIT in the fifties.

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<v Speaker 1>She started taking hormones on her own and asked a

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<v Speaker 1>friend in medical school if he could help her find

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<v Speaker 1>a doctor who could help her. The friend took her

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<v Speaker 1>to the dean, who told her that if she didn't

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<v Speaker 1>stop taking hormones, she would be put in a mental institution.

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<v Speaker 1>Fear of being institutionalized or arrested was a big concern

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<v Speaker 1>for Conway because being trans was strongly associated with being

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<v Speaker 1>mentally ill and criminal behavior. If you were openly trans,

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<v Speaker 1>you could end up institutionalized or even arrested in some places,

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<v Speaker 1>which again, it's so sad to think that we really

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<v Speaker 1>maybe haven't come as far as you would like. After

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<v Speaker 1>this disappointing turn of events at MIT, she put transitioning

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<v Speaker 1>in the back of her mind. She got married, she

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<v Speaker 1>became a parent, and she started working at IBM. At

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<v Speaker 1>this point, Lynne seemed to kind of have a picture

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<v Speaker 1>perfect life from the outside. She was making major moves

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<v Speaker 1>and innovations. She was making major moves and innovations and

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<v Speaker 1>design at IBM, which at the time was the seventh

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<v Speaker 1>largest corporation in the world, while there by all accounts,

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<v Speaker 1>she was kicking ass. She invented a hardware protocol that

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<v Speaker 1>enabled the out of order command processing that most computers

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<v Speaker 1>still used today. But all of this, all of these

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<v Speaker 1>strides that she had been making, was put into jeopardy

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<v Speaker 1>because of transphobia, and that transphobia would alter the trajectory

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<v Speaker 1>of her life. Conway learned about the pioneering gender transition

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<v Speaker 1>work of doctor Harry Benjamin, an endocrinologist and sexologist known

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<v Speaker 1>for his clinical work with transpolkes, and decided that she

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<v Speaker 1>wanted to work with him. What's very heartbreaking is that,

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<v Speaker 1>according to this profile in Michigan Engineering, Conway and her

0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:35.840
<v Speaker 1>then spouse had worked on a solid plan together for

0:11:35.880 --> 0:11:38.600
<v Speaker 1>how Conway's transition would work within their family. They would

0:11:38.600 --> 0:11:41.319
<v Speaker 1>get a divorce and Conway would start working with doctor

0:11:41.320 --> 0:11:44.320
<v Speaker 1>Benjamin to transition. She would pay child support from her

0:11:44.320 --> 0:11:47.480
<v Speaker 1>IBM salary and stay in the children's lives. They decided

0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:50.080
<v Speaker 1>the children would call her aunt, and according to a

0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:54.800
<v Speaker 1>really compelling Forbes piece by Jeremy Alessandre, Conway's immediate family

0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:59.040
<v Speaker 1>and IBM's divisional management were actually pretty accepting and supportive

0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:03.080
<v Speaker 1>for the time at first. However, when IBM's corporate medical

0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:05.920
<v Speaker 1>director learned that Conway was planning to transition in nineteen

0:12:05.960 --> 0:12:09.480
<v Speaker 1>sixty eight, he told then CEO Thomas J. Watson Jr.

0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:13.240
<v Speaker 1>Who fired Conway to avoid the public embarrassment of employing

0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:16.800
<v Speaker 1>a transwoman. Getting fired from IBM had a huge impact

0:12:16.800 --> 0:12:20.240
<v Speaker 1>on Conway's life. It started kind of a downward spiral

0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:24.000
<v Speaker 1>that ended up being completely destabilizing. She had to divorce

0:12:24.040 --> 0:12:27.680
<v Speaker 1>her spells while losing her income, which made everything that

0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:30.880
<v Speaker 1>much more difficult. California Social Services tried to keep her

0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:34.000
<v Speaker 1>away from her kids, and Conway's Expells decided that she

0:12:34.080 --> 0:12:36.600
<v Speaker 1>didn't want to have any contact with Conway because she

0:12:36.679 --> 0:12:38.760
<v Speaker 1>was worried that if Conway was in her life, the

0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:41.199
<v Speaker 1>kids would be taken by the state. Her children were

0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:43.600
<v Speaker 1>just babies at the time, two and four years old.

0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:47.400
<v Speaker 1>This was crushing. Conway recalls that tore me up. Let

0:12:47.480 --> 0:12:49.680
<v Speaker 1>me tell you, the hardest part about the whole thing

0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:51.760
<v Speaker 1>was that I felt like a mom to them, she

0:12:51.840 --> 0:12:54.800
<v Speaker 1>told Michigan Engineering. So she knew this was going to

0:12:54.840 --> 0:12:57.160
<v Speaker 1>be a tough process, and she relied on the lesson

0:12:57.200 --> 0:12:59.760
<v Speaker 1>that she learned from her lifetime love of outdoor adventures

0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:03.239
<v Speaker 1>like newing and rock climbing to steady herself mentally and emotionally.

0:13:03.679 --> 0:13:06.000
<v Speaker 1>As she described it, now, I had a plan to

0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:08.280
<v Speaker 1>get across the river. I could see the steps I

0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:10.280
<v Speaker 1>had to make. I could see the dangers and how

0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:13.080
<v Speaker 1>to protect against them. The only problem was I didn't

0:13:13.080 --> 0:13:15.080
<v Speaker 1>know where I'd end up on the other side. So

0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:17.320
<v Speaker 1>even though it cost to her family and her career,

0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:21.040
<v Speaker 1>she continued to work with doctor Benjamin to transition as

0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:23.280
<v Speaker 1>a lot of transpokets will tell you the logistics of

0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:26.360
<v Speaker 1>changing your name. Getting new identification and paperwork can be

0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:29.080
<v Speaker 1>a big part of navigating trans identity so that you

0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:31.280
<v Speaker 1>can work and earn an income, have a bank account,

0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:33.880
<v Speaker 1>get a place to live. But even today this process

0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:38.640
<v Speaker 1>is complicated and sometimes prohibitively expensive. Sadly, many trans folks

0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:40.760
<v Speaker 1>do not have the support or resources they need to

0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:45.360
<v Speaker 1>navigate it. According to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, only

0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:48.199
<v Speaker 1>one fifth of trans folks who have transitioned have been

0:13:48.240 --> 0:13:50.960
<v Speaker 1>able to update all of their IDs and records, and

0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:53.320
<v Speaker 1>one third haven't been able to update any of their

0:13:53.360 --> 0:13:56.920
<v Speaker 1>ideas or records. Luckily, Conway was able to use connections

0:13:56.920 --> 0:13:59.560
<v Speaker 1>that doctor Benjamin had in Oakland to get this process

0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:02.560
<v Speaker 1>done quick, which was especially important and back then in

0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:06.440
<v Speaker 1>order to avoid suspicion that could turn unsafe. Conway recalls,

0:14:06.840 --> 0:14:09.520
<v Speaker 1>you were an undocumented alien from Mars. You didn't have

0:14:09.559 --> 0:14:11.480
<v Speaker 1>a birth certificate. How are you going to get a job?

0:14:11.760 --> 0:14:13.760
<v Speaker 1>This was the sixties. You can think of it like

0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:16.240
<v Speaker 1>being a spy in a foreign country. If you were

0:14:16.240 --> 0:14:19.080
<v Speaker 1>found out, you'd be dealt with immediately, If not by

0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:22.080
<v Speaker 1>the police, then people on the streets. So it's probably

0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:25.480
<v Speaker 1>clear why. After transitioning, Conway started what she refers to

0:14:25.600 --> 0:14:29.480
<v Speaker 1>as the stealth phase of her career. In nineteen sixty nine,

0:14:29.560 --> 0:14:32.720
<v Speaker 1>Conway changed her name, hit her gender identity, and started

0:14:32.760 --> 0:14:35.240
<v Speaker 1>looking for work and computing, eventually finding a job as

0:14:35.240 --> 0:14:38.720
<v Speaker 1>a contract programmer. Then later worked at Memoires, and then

0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:42.920
<v Speaker 1>she landed the big account at the Xerots Pello Alto

0:14:43.040 --> 0:14:46.960
<v Speaker 1>Research Center, which was a huge deal. Again she started

0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:49.280
<v Speaker 1>kicking ass like she always did, just like she did

0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:53.360
<v Speaker 1>back at IBM before being fired. Her work completely revolutionized

0:14:53.400 --> 0:14:57.040
<v Speaker 1>how microchips were designed. She sometimes called the hidden Hand

0:14:57.520 --> 0:14:59.720
<v Speaker 1>for that work, and it led to the tech revolution

0:14:59.760 --> 0:15:01.640
<v Speaker 1>in the nineteen eighties and is the reason why we

0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:04.640
<v Speaker 1>have smartphones and personal computers. But even while she was

0:15:04.680 --> 0:15:08.440
<v Speaker 1>accomplishing all of these important innovations, she couldn't really own

0:15:08.480 --> 0:15:10.720
<v Speaker 1>them because of her identity. In a piece for the

0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:14.160
<v Speaker 1>Huffington Post, Conway called this time in her life stealth mode,

0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:17.200
<v Speaker 1>where she kind of just purposely stayed behind the scenes

0:15:17.400 --> 0:15:21.200
<v Speaker 1>despite creating innovations that literally changed the world. Because during

0:15:21.200 --> 0:15:24.120
<v Speaker 1>this time, her fan's identity was not public knowledge, she

0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:28.480
<v Speaker 1>only told her closest friends, HR administrators and security clearance administrators.

0:15:28.880 --> 0:15:31.680
<v Speaker 1>She purposely made herself scarce and stayed behind the scenes,

0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:34.880
<v Speaker 1>hence the nickname the Hidden Hand, and that meant a

0:15:34.880 --> 0:15:39.040
<v Speaker 1>lot of her accomplishments and innovations did too. Transphobobia almost

0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:42.040
<v Speaker 1>kept us from having a full accounting of this important

0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:45.640
<v Speaker 1>history and technology. So he did. Conway's contribution start being

0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:49.320
<v Speaker 1>made public well. In nineteen ninety nine, a computer historian

0:15:49.360 --> 0:15:53.040
<v Speaker 1>began investigating Conway's early innovations at IBM, which tipped her

0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:55.080
<v Speaker 1>off that others were taking credit for the work that

0:15:55.120 --> 0:15:57.800
<v Speaker 1>she had done on IBM under a different name. Conway

0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:00.280
<v Speaker 1>wanted to correct the record, but in order to do so,

0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:02.680
<v Speaker 1>she would need to open up about her identity and

0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:05.720
<v Speaker 1>explain why somebody with a totally different name had made

0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:08.280
<v Speaker 1>all of these big accomplishments that she was saying were

0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:11.920
<v Speaker 1>actually hers. She ended up telling the Computer Historian and

0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:15.560
<v Speaker 1>then quietly added a quote gender transition section to her

0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:18.840
<v Speaker 1>personal website. And this decision is what really sparked the

0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:22.120
<v Speaker 1>next chapter of her life as an advocate for trans writes.

0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:25.120
<v Speaker 1>The list of ways that Lynn Kanway has advocated for

0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:28.640
<v Speaker 1>other trans folks is very long. She's given support and

0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:31.920
<v Speaker 1>assistance to many transwomen going through transition. She's also been

0:16:31.960 --> 0:16:35.120
<v Speaker 1>an advocate for employment protections for transpolks. But one thing

0:16:35.120 --> 0:16:37.440
<v Speaker 1>that I really love is how Lynd Kanway is still

0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:40.880
<v Speaker 1>making big changes for transpolks working in tech today. In

0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:44.840
<v Speaker 1>twenty thirteen, Conway successfully lobbied the Board of Directors at

0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:48.480
<v Speaker 1>the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, which is essentially

0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:50.920
<v Speaker 1>like a code of ethics for the engineering profession to

0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:54.480
<v Speaker 1>include transpolks, and that means it impacts the world's largest

0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:58.280
<v Speaker 1>engineering professional society. Kanway story actually has a pretty happy

0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:01.960
<v Speaker 1>ending after fifty years of silence. In October twenty twenty,

0:17:02.000 --> 0:17:05.240
<v Speaker 1>IBM invited staff to an event called tech Trailblazer and

0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:10.080
<v Speaker 1>transgender pioneer Lynn Conway in conversation with Diane Gearson. Gearson

0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:13.520
<v Speaker 1>was IBM's senior vice president of Human Resources. The event

0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:17.080
<v Speaker 1>started with a formal apology to Conway for her firing

0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:20.240
<v Speaker 1>fifty two years earlier. Conway said that she struggled to

0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:23.679
<v Speaker 1>hold back tears. Not only did they apologize, but they

0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:27.240
<v Speaker 1>also recognize the immense contributions to IBM's work that had

0:17:27.240 --> 0:17:31.880
<v Speaker 1>just gone unattributed. Dario Gill, director of IBM Research, presented

0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:35.200
<v Speaker 1>Conway with a Lifetime Achievement Award, given to individuals who

0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:38.159
<v Speaker 1>have changed the world through technology innovations. Gill noted that

0:17:38.240 --> 0:17:42.520
<v Speaker 1>Lynn's extraordinary technical achievements helped define the modern computing industry

0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:44.560
<v Speaker 1>and that she paid the way for how we design

0:17:44.640 --> 0:17:48.280
<v Speaker 1>and make computing ships today and forever change to microelectronics

0:17:48.400 --> 0:17:52.359
<v Speaker 1>devices and people's lives. IBM acknowledged that after Conway was

0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:55.399
<v Speaker 1>fired in nineteen sixty eight that her research still aided

0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:59.600
<v Speaker 1>IBM success. In nineteen sixty five, Lynn created the Architectural

0:17:59.680 --> 0:18:03.960
<v Speaker 1>Level Advanced Computing System one simulator and invented a method

0:18:04.000 --> 0:18:06.800
<v Speaker 1>that led to the development of the super Scholar computer.

0:18:07.480 --> 0:18:11.320
<v Speaker 1>This dynamic instruction scheduling invention was later used in computer chips,

0:18:11.359 --> 0:18:15.359
<v Speaker 1>greatly improving their performance. A spokesperson said Lynn Conway recalls

0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:17.720
<v Speaker 1>of the event instead of as being a resolution of

0:18:17.720 --> 0:18:20.560
<v Speaker 1>what happened in nineteen sixty eight, it became a heartfelt

0:18:20.560 --> 0:18:22.920
<v Speaker 1>group celebration of how far we've all come since then.

0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:26.200
<v Speaker 1>So Lynn Conway is actually still very much alive today.

0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:29.440
<v Speaker 1>She lives on twenty four beautiful acres of meadow marsh

0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:31.919
<v Speaker 1>and Woodlands and Rule, Michigan with her husband, where they

0:18:31.920 --> 0:18:34.000
<v Speaker 1>spend all of their time exploring and playing in the

0:18:34.000 --> 0:18:37.720
<v Speaker 1>outdoors like truly living her best life. And she's still

0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:40.280
<v Speaker 1>an activist who can follow her on Twitter at Lynn Conway.

0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:43.679
<v Speaker 1>And one thing I also want to add, transpokes deserve

0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:46.640
<v Speaker 1>to live full lives that account for their contributions and brilliance,

0:18:46.880 --> 0:18:49.960
<v Speaker 1>regardless of where they are on their journeys. Transition means

0:18:50.000 --> 0:18:52.880
<v Speaker 1>different things to different people. It can be personal, medical,

0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:55.560
<v Speaker 1>or legal steps, telling one's friends and family or co

0:18:55.640 --> 0:18:59.280
<v Speaker 1>workers using a different name or pronouns, dressing differently, changing

0:18:59.280 --> 0:19:02.320
<v Speaker 1>one's name on lead documents, etc. As I mentioned before,

0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:05.639
<v Speaker 1>it can be prohibitive for many, and trans folks deserve

0:19:05.720 --> 0:19:08.080
<v Speaker 1>to live full lives even if they are not able

0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:10.800
<v Speaker 1>to transition the way that doctor Conway did. I just

0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:13.439
<v Speaker 1>love doctor Conway's story because it's a good example of

0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:17.880
<v Speaker 1>how living history is all around us. We can't let sexism, transphobia,

0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:21.800
<v Speaker 1>and racist systems erase all the accomplishments of marginalized people.

0:19:22.520 --> 0:19:24.920
<v Speaker 1>And I gotta end lind Conway's story with this great

0:19:25.000 --> 0:19:28.080
<v Speaker 1>quote from her Huffing and Post piece bottom line, if

0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:30.399
<v Speaker 1>you want to change the future, start living as if

0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:33.560
<v Speaker 1>you're already there in. Her story is one that really

0:19:33.600 --> 0:19:35.879
<v Speaker 1>inspires me. It's one of the reasons why it's so

0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:38.199
<v Speaker 1>important to me to really tell the stories of the

0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:41.400
<v Speaker 1>contributions of women who have shaped technology, even if those

0:19:41.440 --> 0:19:44.480
<v Speaker 1>contributions and voices go overlooked, because I used to think

0:19:44.520 --> 0:19:47.439
<v Speaker 1>of technology as a big boys club where women and

0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:50.000
<v Speaker 1>other marginalized people were trying to break their way in.

0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:53.240
<v Speaker 1>But that's not actually true. Anytime you use a computer,

0:19:53.400 --> 0:19:56.160
<v Speaker 1>it's because of the contributions of women. Women were involved

0:19:56.160 --> 0:19:59.000
<v Speaker 1>that every single step of the process of personal computing

0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:01.119
<v Speaker 1>becoming what it is today. And if you don't always

0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:03.600
<v Speaker 1>hear our stories or our voices, it's not because we

0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:06.480
<v Speaker 1>weren't there. We need monuments to all the different ways

0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:08.400
<v Speaker 1>that women have shaped what it means to be online

0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:11.760
<v Speaker 1>and youth technology. So join me as I build them.

0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:15.320
<v Speaker 1>Thanks so much for listening. I'm Bridget Todd, host of Iheartradios.

0:20:15.320 --> 0:20:17.399
<v Speaker 1>There are no bodiles on the Internet, and thanks so

0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:20.399
<v Speaker 1>much to Jonathan Strickland and Tarry Harrison for the opportunity

0:20:20.400 --> 0:20:22.439
<v Speaker 1>to share these stories with you. It really means a

0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:32.760
<v Speaker 1>lot happy women's history. Mom Text Stuff is an iHeartRadio production.

0:20:33.000 --> 0:20:38.040
<v Speaker 1>For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

0:20:38.160 --> 0:20:40.159
<v Speaker 1>or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.