History of women in the sciences. [inaudible conversations] good afternoon. Welcome to the ninth annual tucson festival of books. We wished to think cops communication for sponsoring this venules been used in the college of science. The presentation will last one hour including questions and answers please hold the questions to the and. Immediately following the session the authors will autograph books at the bookstore tent on the of all bouffe 141. Books are available for purchase at this location. The of the will be 20 minutes late to signing books with a 20 minute interview with cspan. Text friend 52 04 14 book. I feel like i am in car talk. [laughter] your gift makes a difference to keep the program free of charge with critical literacy programs in our community. If at of respect for fellow audience members i urge you to turn off yourself alone and it is my pleasure to introduce the two authors we have here with us known for a variety of books that i think was reversed one comment i originally a New York Times reporter of psychology and somehow went to the dark side laugh laugh and she has a National Science board publicservice award for and as a microbiologist working with nasa general in the first book that she wrote was called cured as a fellow of the institute she works for the of your times, l. A. Times and slate. What they probably dont know is the community that you live in is indebted in the sciences and astronomy and the department was working at the moon so the Apollo Mission could land safely in the cameras are now mapping mars. And we also have a tradition we have a famous event going on that is trying to catch and destroyed in the Deputy Director this day big deal and another woman from the Planetary Sciences department as a champion of change by the white house it is my pleasure to have you both here with the books you have written. So lets just art with a broad observation for aboard the view decided to write not about this thing go woman but an entity, or enterprise and in fact, the enterprise that you both with wrote about was and innovation and improbable to happen at the time with the computers at j. P. Hill or the women at harvard. So how do these innovations come about . Water the results . Because i want you to pick whenever you want. Number three is a tremendous amount of racism and number four that is important what is going on todays special mature book these with the edward koch and obsolescence the plant from computers to programmers and how much of that is happening with artificial intelligence. So what would you like to talk about . [laughter] so yes. At harvard and they got in at the very beginning of the science of astrophysics. Before their project most astronomers were involved with mapping the stars in the service and navigation and and people thought they would never be able to figure out what the stars were made death because they were too far away. But once it became possible to spread out the starlight to look at the spectra instead of points of light, when it was possible to see what type of chemicals were in the stars and even learn something if about the movements of the stars. The real innovation that started the project was the ability to photograph the spectrum that required a lot of technological experience and henry draper and his wife decided to devote their lives to this project to figure out the taxonomy and right when they had it in order he died. He was only 45 in his wife was determined to see him is a dream realized she thought about and assistant but that was too difficult said she approached the director of the Harvard Observatory and said i will give you my personal fortune if youll do the work and in a mitt for my husband. Sheet tripled about the operating budget which freed him to hire a large Group Proposal that is how it started. So similar the women at the j. P. L. Or jet Propulsion Laboratory were first called computers they were women to computed and were very good at math. So they started in the late 30s and of laboratory in pasadena and i will lead met when i first heard of them i assumed the work would be clerical and and not really involved in the research they were a part of indecorous arrears would be short if so that was my assumption so actually win the opposite was true and they worked there 40 or 50 years one of them still works there today they were exceptional at math and hired at a time when it was very difficult for a woman to find a job in the sciences. There and not very options for those interested in the field so to come together to be a group of women met quite a bit because it went from being the only woman in the math and science class to be a part to the of this elite group that the laboratory. In the beginning sh it change so much but in the beginning they are working on early weaponry the corporate and missile and a sergeant smaller surfacetosurface missile and this involves incredible calculus, a long hours and takes an entire day to calculate a symbol trajectory but at the same time they are looking at the potential of different rocket propellants the real focus and lowest is Space Exploration nbc that in the 1950s when they start adapting the calculations and start to applying them to what will be the First American satellite. I was surprised to learn how that came to me we heard about sputnik but one that was designed by using of calculations using the scaleddown version by doing the calculations with of missiles they could create a staged system of rocketry they launched jupiters see and breaks all records raises 3,335 miles into the air and it could have launched the first satellite of fullyear ahead of sputnik but it was played down with sandbags weighed down with sandbags but to hear the bitterness and the inter that they should have been able to launch the first satellite. But not until sputnik was launched then second sputnik was launched that eisenhower finally gave the group the goahead a plunge in 90 they launched in 1958 that is one of many innovations in one of the most surprising for me to learn about then later things change so much they go from being computers to the first computer programmers at the lab and that is due to a woman named helen their longtime supervisor and her push to bring them early training and from there they went on to work on an incredible number of missions. In the case of harvard it was somebody giving money order j. Plo or nasa. I want to answer your third question from before about the adl of the sexes and because she also hit on it but even now there are people who feel whenever these women were doing it could not be that important because it was done by women. There was a full professor in harvard one that read my book as a technical expert in said she only saw to it was a cute and point story and quaint but did not realize they were doing science. Of how these things happen and it was not simple or menial it was difficult. So all round of world of photography of the heavens. The women were given a glass plates the size of eight by 10 photostat being the images of the sky. And actually making discoveries. So the reason why the group was that all women a woman named macy was made a supervisor of the group was a big deal to have a woman as the head of the important section the lab was still small if you know, anything about the history of the lab was basically founded by crazy people who love to fire rockets and creates havoc so they saw her as the mother figure so they put trusted in her so even though she received applications from bin and women but she literally hire women. Her thinking was that she wanted to create a Cohesive Group in wanted it to feel like a family she was worried if she hired then there would not listen to her simply because she was a woman. Coming from all over the country many had advanced degrees when of the first africanamerican and hired in a technical position having a degree in Chemical Engineering today to be hired as an engineer. The first woman to work there was the wives and sisters and daughters of the astronomers that were roped into the calculation work there was a logical next up to hire women from outside the university to continue the work. So in some ways in both cases it was accidental because of a particular individual or circumstance. Yes. Certainly heart is not someone thinks of as being open to women in the 18 eighties. But the director was a big believer in Higher Education for women. So those who devoted themselves because of their age that going to college would cause the of reproductive organs to atrophy laugh laugh you laugh. And it shouldnt be noted that the women were a bargain. They were exceptionally skilled but could be paid quite a bit less so another thing that is important to note that the women at harvard, their observations for extraordinary. That women have done it before he did. Key use the discovery of andrea day levitt to bolster his claim that there were galaxies beyond the milky way. Then denims all based on the discovery 1908. So i will poll the business of absence lessons because the folks that you wrote about have been net jpl for ever had careers of 40 years or more enduring those careers to be a computer went away because computers came on board. So how did they deal with those transitions . Is very unique to their group because those who worked as computers were mostly for when i am came along so the fact that they were able to remain with the same female supervisor is quite exceptional and can be attributed to the culture given sole many opportunities that there is a real feeling that they need to get up to speed and many were hesitant that there were machines that could not be trusted and that they adopt ibm computers so much later than other industries that there was a fear so the women will capitalize on this by not being afraid and to be on the verge of falling this especially in the mid60s with a history of computing it is such an incredible time for i am computers i am computers of whiff calculations but yet they are still subject to those gender norms that the time so there are beauty contest. [laughter] at the same time they are exceptional computer programmers they are competing in the misguided missile contest and the queen of airspace. [laughter] i have heard john glenn refused to go to space unless one of the computers figured the trajectory. That was not in the movie vat nasa did not trust the Machine Computers he wanted a human computer to do the calculations. Sow o so how did both of you to do all kinds of interesting things . I came across this topic the most random way you could decide to research a book in all have to do with a baby names. Started in 2010 my husband and i had just moved to boston and i was pregnant with my first child in we could not agree on any baby name. And my husband suggested the name elenore francis when it first heard the name i was not sure because it is an oldfashioned name so i google the name and the first person to come up in my search was a woman named eleanor francis. I remember so vividly even now. To be filled with the picture of her taken in the 60s excepting in aboard that nasa and i was completely struck by it i had no idea that women worked at nasa at this time. So i became obsessed with learning more i contacted the archives that jpl and learned she was one of large group of women and ultimately a conceit all of the wonderful images in photographs at the lab and as distinct as they were they had so few names in the photograph with no contact intermission and it struck me because it is the same group of women working over decades that the laboratory. So i became the assessed not knowing it was going to be a book so it is a word of passion. So mine had no hope to interview them but i kind of like it that way. But i had learned about them in charge of the project to determine the expansion rate of the universe and she mentioned the name henry etta about 25 years ago. When i went to learn more i found she was working in the room full of women at harvard and that was the big surprise taiwans did to know more about them then i was surprised nobody had done that. It was such a good story that they went from these jobs being computers there were six in the beginning then the core stretched 20 at a time in because of their presence various women philanthropist supporting the black programs created a Fellowship Fund for women to work at harvard for one year then move onto another job in the observatory that help them to infiltrate all over the country with the new director came in and wanted to create the program of graduate education in astronomy the only fellowship money he had was this program for rural women. For women so the First Harvard ph. D. Went to cecilia who came to this country from england because she was told she had no future social got her ph. D. In the course of which the stars consisted mainly of hydrogen and other discovery not expected at the time the roughly david be the same proportions so the idea hydrogen was 1 million times more prevalent did not seem feasible and she was told to soft pedal that thought but it typically four years for the whole Astronomy Community to agree that it was mostly hydrogen she stated harvard retired career to become a full professor and chair of the department which you know, is a terrible job she did not want to be chair for very long. [laughter] wait until they become 18. [laughter] off so with one interview with these people making give you the phone number to shirley maclaine. There was an impact at the time in harvard to the point that what about this group of women or how did that influence the culture at jpl . Connected really did because this group of women working very closely with the engineers particularly on these Early Missions the first to the planets and to the moon they are responsible for so much of what is happening with the space ship design and the trajectory and retreat closely with the of pensioners that they make the problems and we solve them. [laughter] so if it is interesting to me because those who were working with them said howard did you feel about this . Du feel they were given a raw deal . Many thought that they were and it wasnt fair if they were computers or paid less so we can see even in the 50s and 60s say are included as a coauthor and this is very unusual at the time for women to be included this way precut made a big difference because it helped the longevity of their careers in 19609 we see a huge shift because the women are finally made engineers for commitment so much to them to finally be given that recognition that they deserve and at this point she decides she wants to increase the numbers of the group but was to bring in even more it is not easy to do because this time most engineering schools are closed to women so when cal tech opened the doors it only admitted three women into the program so she decides to get around this to higher been and who have degrees in mathematics training them in the lab and encouraging them to go to night school for engineering. Okay well i would like at this point to open the floor to everybody in the room. And i am sure that our office he will be interested in your questions. If not i have my own questions. If you do you have to go to the microphone right over there. Please. How did world war ii affect what was going on in caltech and the loss of then to the war effort . It affected it quite a bit. Not only because the lab received its first big contract because of world war ii. At that time the group is working on something called jet assisted takeoff. This idea of a rocket plane. So they were putting rockets on his light fixed wing aircraft. And world war ii but really the First Investment in Rocket Research in this country and it is a very big dell because at that time Rocket Science was considered this in science. It was not something that serious scientists or engineers really want to be associated with. So to have that funding was just the basis of how the jet Propulsion Laboratory forms. And then of course, as the years go on, we see that funding coming in the late 1930s and then by the mid1940s men are in scarce supply to be hired as computers. And it doesnt make such a difference at jpl where they were not interested in hiring men in that group anyway but it does make a difference and influence the number of women that were hired as other nasa centers in particular. World war ii also had a big effect at harvard also. All of the operators several of the women wound up teaching celestial navigation. That became an Important Role for them. Interested in more detail with his computers were computing. Acing what it is they were using the integration to solve differential equations for trajectories below that there were methods they were using. Simpsons role . And today set up where they just given this sheet is a calculate these arithmetic calculations . Im afraid i cannot going to quite the detail about the differential equations that they use. For the methods they use. There was only doing the strength of differential equations and it was in the beginning, it was a lot that they were given many of these early equations they were plugging in numbers. So they were adapting the equations as they went. It was sort of like a spreadsheet as they were putting these numbers in. Then of course the work change quite a bit later. So it is funny because i actually originally included a lot of these equations in my first draft of the manuscript. And my editor felt like nobody wants to see those. [laughter] i do. They got taken off and now i wish they had been in there so i can show you a peek at them. Todays pencil and paper or calculators . These pencil and paper. They also had calculators, these large bulky desk calculators but i was surprised at how little they could do. I mean it was kind of shocking that youre such a big machine but it can really only do basic addition and subtraction. Later models to do square roots and those were very prized. Actually they had a number of races that they did for the square root calculators. And helen frequently run those races. One those races. Here comes somebody else. This is another world war ii question. A lot have the code breakers for the project im just wondering if that group of women or because there were a lot of women on that project if it had any influence on the selection of women for the projects that you have been writing about. Or if there is any communication between them