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Connecting Women pp 103–117Cite as

From Computing Girls to Data Processors: Women Assistants in the Rothamsted Statistics Department

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Part of the book series: History of Computing ((HC))

Abstract

Over 200 women worked as computing assistants in the Rothamsted statistics department during the twentieth century. They were employed in the analysis of field and laboratory experiments and in the examination of the returns of agricultural surveys. Before World War II they did calculations with pen, paper, slide rules and electromechanical calculating machines, but during the 1950s, when the department underwent an early process of computerisation, their tasks shifted to data processing. Only sparse records exist on the work of these women, and their contribution to the activity of the Rothamsted statistics department has never been assessed, consigning them to invisibility. Combining the literature currently available on laboratory technicians with the one on human computers and data processors, the paper will provide a longue durée perspective (1920s–1990) on the work of the female assistants in the Rothamsted statistics department, addressing two distinct aspects. On the one hand it will examine how the tasks of these women evolved with the computing technologies available in the department. On the other hand the paper will reflect on the invisibility of these assistants, who are never explicitly accounted as contributors to the scientific activity of the Rothamsted statistics department, despite being a conspicuous component of its staff.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Lovegrove, Gillian, and Barbara Segal. 1991. Women into computing: selected papers 1988–1990. Berlin: Springer. [in collaboration with the British Computer Society]; Light, Jennifer S. 1999. When computers were women. Technology and Culture 40(3): 455–483; Grier, David A. 2001. Human computers: the first pioneers of the information age. Endeavour 25(1): 28–32, Grier, David A. 2007. When computers were human. Princeton: Princeton University Press; Abbate, Janet (ed). 2003. Special Issue on women and gender in the history of computing. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 25(4): 4–8, Abbate, Janet. 2012. Recoding gender: women’s changing participation in computing. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; Margolis, Jane, and Allan Fisher. 2003. Unlocking the clubhouse. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; Cohoon, Joanne, and William Aspray. 2006. Women and information technology: research on underrepresentation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; Misa, Thomas J. (ed.). 2010. Gender codes: why women are leaving computing? Hoboken: Wiley/IEEE Computer Society.

  2. 2.

    Haigh, Thomas. 2010. Masculinity and the machine man: gender in the history of data processing. In Gender codes: why women are leaving computing? ed. Thomas J. Misa, 51–71. Hoboken: Wiley/IEEE Computer Society; Hicks, Mary. 2010a. Meritocracy and feminization in conflict: computerization in the British Government. In Gender codes: why women are leaving computing? ed. Thomas J. Misa, 95–114. Hoboken: Wiley/IEEE Computer Society, Hicks, Mary. 2010b. Only the clothes changed: women operators in British computing and advertising, 1950–1970. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 32(4): 5–17.

  3. 3.

    Misa 2010: 8.

  4. 4.

    Shapin, Steven. 1989. The invisible technician. American Scientist 77(6): 554–563.

  5. 5.

    Parolini, Giuditta. 2013. “Making sense of figures”: statistics, computing and information technologies in agriculture and biology in Britain, 1920s–1960s. Doctoral dissertation. University of Bologna, Parolini, Giuditta. 2014. The emergence of modern statistics in agricultural science: analysis of variance, experimental design and the reshaping of research at Rothamsted Experimental Station, 1919–1933. Journal of the History of Biology. doi:10.1007/s10739-014-9394-z.

  6. 6.

    Grier 2007: 159–169.

  7. 7.

    Light 1999: 483.

  8. 8.

    Shapin 1989: 561.

  9. 9.

    Shapin 1989: 556.

  10. 10.

    E.g. Iliffe, Rob. 2008. Guest editorial: technicians. Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 62(1): 3–16.

  11. 11.

    Iliffe 2008: 5.

  12. 12.

    Light 1999: 474.

  13. 13.

    Iliffe 2008: 10.

  14. 14.

    Galison, Peter. 1997. Image and logic: a material culture of microphysics. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press: 33, 198–200.

  15. 15.

    de Chadarevian, Soraya. 2002. Designs for life: molecular biology after World War II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  16. 16.

    de Chadarevian 2002: 124 footnote.

  17. 17.

    Grier 2007: 6.

  18. 18.

    Grier 2001: 28.

  19. 19.

    Campbell-Kelly, Martin, Mary Croarken, Raymond Flood, and Eleanor Robson. 2003. The history of mathematical tables: from Sumer to spreadsheets. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 9.

  20. 20.

    Croarken, Mary. 2003. Mary Edwards: computing for a living in 18th century England. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 25(4): 9–15.

  21. 21.

    Light 1999: 469.

  22. 22.

    Grier 2007: 83.

  23. 23.

    Haigh 2010.

  24. 24.

    Hicks 2010b.

  25. 25.

    Ensmenger, Nathan. 2010. The computer boys take over: computers, programmers and the politics of technical expertise. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

  26. 26.

    Cohoon and Aspray 2006; Misa 2010.

  27. 27.

    Haigh 2010: 52–55.

  28. 28.

    Parolini 2013: Chap. 4.

  29. 29.

    Parolini 2013: 226–244.

  30. 30.

    Parolini 2013: 257.

  31. 31.

    Parolini 2013: 256.

  32. 32.

    Rothamsted Experimental Station. 1981. Report for 1980 Part 1. Harpenden: Rothamsted Experimental Station: 269.

  33. 33.

    Rothamsted Experimental Station. 1982. Report for 1981 Part 1. Harpenden: Rothamsted Experimental Station: 276.

  34. 34.

    For the definition of the human computers in the department as girls, see below the correspondence of the computers Pennells and Rolt with the local statisticians. For the weekly wages of the assistant staff, see the archive of Rothamsted Research (RRes), LAT 45.2.

  35. 35.

    Rothamsted Experimental Station. 1976. Report for 1975 Part 1. Harpenden: Rothamsted Experimental Station: 332.

  36. 36.

    Hicks 2010a.

  37. 37.

    Hicks 2010b: 3.

  38. 38.

    Grier 2007: 8.

  39. 39.

    The correspondence between the women computers, the statisticians in the department and the station director is held in the Fisher Papers at the Barr Smith Library, the University of Adelaide (hereafter BSL), and in the archive of Rothamsted Research [ref. STATS 7.11] (hereafter RRes).

  40. 40.

    Letters from F. Pennells and K. Rolt to R. A. Fisher, 3rd and 12th December 1931, BSL.

  41. 41.

    Letter from R. A. Fisher to F. Pennells and K. Rolt, 5th December 1931, RRes. For the qualification of the computers as ‘girls’ see Letter from R. A. Fisher to F. Yates, 5th December 1931, RRes.

  42. 42.

    Letter from R. A. Fisher to F. Pennells and K. Rolt, 5th December 1931, RRes.

  43. 43.

    Letter from F. Pennells and K. Rolt to F. Yates, 29th December 1931, RRes.

  44. 44.

    Parolini 2013: 256.

  45. 45.

    Yates, Frank. 1960. The use of electronic computers in the analysis of replicated experiments, and groups of experiments of the same design. Bulletin de l’Institut Agronomique et des Stations de Recherches de Gembloux 1: 201–210: 210.

  46. 46.

    Parolini 2013: 258.

  47. 47.

    Shapin 1989: 560.

  48. 48.

    Vera Wiltsher in Parolini 2013: 257.

  49. 49.

    Iliffe 2008: 6.

  50. 50.

    Parolini 2013: 240.

References

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    Google Scholar 

  • Abbate, Janet. 2012. Recoding gender: women’s changing participation in computing. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell-Kelly, Martin, Mary Croarken, Raymond Flood, and Eleanor Robson. 2003. The history of mathematical tables: from Sumer to spreadsheets. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Cohoon, Joanne, and William Aspray. 2006. Women and information technology: research on underrepresentation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Croarken, Mary. 2003. Mary Edwards: computing for a living in 18th century England. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 25(4): 9–15.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • de Chadarevian, Soraya. 2002. Designs for life: molecular biology after World War II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ensmenger, Nathan. 2010. The computer boys take over: computers, programmers and the politics of technical expertise. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Galison, Peter. 1997. Image and logic: a material culture of microphysics. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grier, David A. 2001. Human computers: the first pioneers of the information age. Endeavour 25(1): 28–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grier, David A. 2007. When computers were human. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haigh, Thomas. 2010. Masculinity and the machine man: gender in the history of data processing. In Gender codes: why women are leaving computing? ed. Thomas J. Misa, 51–71. Hoboken: Wiley/IEEE Computer Society.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Hicks, Mary. 2010a. Meritocracy and feminization in conflict: computerization in the British Government. In Gender codes: why women are leaving computing? ed. Thomas J. Misa, 95–114. Hoboken: Wiley/IEEE Computer Society.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Hicks, Mary. 2010b. Only the clothes changed: women operators in British computing and advertising, 1950–1970. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 32(4): 5–17.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Iliffe, Rob. 2008. Guest editorial: technicians. Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 62(1): 3–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Light, Jennifer S. 1999. When computers were women. Technology and Culture 40(3): 455–483.

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Lovegrove, Gillian, and Barbara Segal. 1991. Women into computing: selected papers 1988–1990. Berlin: Springer. [in collaboration with the British Computer Society].

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Margolis, Jane, and Allan Fisher. 2003. Unlocking the clubhouse. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Misa, Thomas J. (ed.). 2010. Gender codes: why women are leaving computing? Hoboken: Wiley/IEEE Computer Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parolini, Giuditta. 2013. “Making sense of figures”: statistics, computing and information technologies in agriculture and biology in Britain, 1920s–1960s. Doctoral dissertation. University of Bologna.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parolini, Giuditta. 2014. The emergence of modern statistics in agricultural science: analysis of variance, experimental design and the reshaping of research at Rothamsted Experimental Station, 1919–1933. Journal of the History of Biology. doi:10.1007/s10739-014-9394-z.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothamsted Experimental Station. 1976. Report for 1975 Part 1. Harpenden: Rothamsted Experimental Station.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothamsted Experimental Station. 1981. Report for 1980 Part 1. Harpenden: Rothamsted Experimental Station.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothamsted Experimental Station. 1982. Report for 1981 Part 1. Harpenden: Rothamsted Experimental Station.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shapin, Steven. 1989. The invisible technician. American Scientist 77(6): 554–563.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yates, Frank. 1960. The use of electronic computers in the analysis of replicated experiments, and groups of experiments of the same design. Bulletin de l’Institut Agronomique et des Stations de Recherches de Gembloux 1: 201–210.

    Google Scholar 

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Acknowledgement

I am grateful to Mrs Brenda Watler (interviewed in August 2014) and Mrs L. Vera Wiltsher (interviewed in September 2011) for sharing with me their memories of the years spent in the Rothamsted statistics department . I thank the Lawes Agricultural Trust for the permission to quote from the materials held in the archives of Rothamsted Research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Technische Universität Berlin and Berliner Zentrum für Wissensgeschichte, 10623, Berlin, Germany

    Giuditta Parolini

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  1. Giuditta Parolini
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Correspondence to Giuditta Parolini .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Communication Sciences, CNRS, Paris-Sorbonne, UPMC, Paris, France

    Valérie Schafer

  2. Institute for Communication Sciences CNRS, Paris-Sorbonne, UPMC, Université Paris-Sorbonne, Paris, France

    Benjamin G. Thierry

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Parolini, G. (2015). From Computing Girls to Data Processors: Women Assistants in the Rothamsted Statistics Department. In: Schafer, V., Thierry, B. (eds) Connecting Women. History of Computing. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20837-4_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20837-4_7

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