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Enchantress of Numbers

By Chris Hemedinger on The SAS Dummy March 24, 2009

Today is Ada Lovelace Day, a celebration of a woman who is widely appreciated as "the first programmer".

At SAS I work with a lot of programmers and other technical folks, many of whom are women (including my boss and my boss' boss). I tend to take this for granted, perhaps because my mother was a computer. But not everyone lives in such a balanced world, which is why organizations like this serve an important role.

I also have 3 daughters. I don't know whether any of them will choose a career in technology, but I'll make sure that they know that they have the heritage to support it.

About Author

Chris Hemedinger
Director, SAS User Engagement

+Chris Hemedinger is the Director of SAS User Engagement, which includes our SAS Communities and SAS User Groups. Since 1993, Chris has worked for SAS as an author, a software developer, an R&D manager and a consultant. Inexplicably, Chris is still coasting on the limited fame he earned as an author of SAS For Dummies.

2 Comments

Dr Betty Alexandra Toole on March 24, 2009 11:29 am

Delighted you are encouraging your daughters as Ada encouraged her daughter Annabella.

Ada's view of her legacy is found in my blog:
http://www.well.com/~adatoole/index.htm#ald09
Ralph Winters on March 28, 2009 7:24 pm

Maybe spreading Ada's legacy will encourage more women to rejoin the ranks of computer science. Women programmers have been declining for the past decade.