Programmed Inequality

This book reveals how Britain lost its early domination in computing by systematically discriminating against its most qualified workers: women. Highlighting the impact of labor feminization and gendered technocracy on the British computer industry, Marie Hicks exposes the government's neglect of its largest technical workforce, causing disastrous decisions that prompted the country's biggest computer user to crumble. Drawing from recently opened government files, personal interviews, and archives of major British computer companies, this book dispels the myth of technological meritocracy and explains why technical skill is not enough to ensure women's rise to the top in scientific and technological fields.