Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, is known as the first programmer, because she designed a program for the unbuilt machine.Hulton Archive, via Getty ImagesAugusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, is known as the first programmer, because she designed a program for the unbuilt machine.

Fast-forward 171 years to today (which happens to be Ada Lovelace Day, for highlighting women in science, technology, engineering and math), and computer programming is dominated by men.In 1842, Ada Lovelace, known as the “enchantress of numbers,” wrote the first computer program.
Women software developers earn 80 percent of what men with the same jobs earn. Just 18 percent of computer science degrees are awarded to women, down from 37 percent in 1985. Fewer than 5 percent of venture-backed tech start-ups are founded by women./.../