• Source: Anita Borg

Anita Borg (January 17, 1949 – April 6, 2003) was an American computer scientist celebrated for advocating for women’s representation and professional advancement in technology. She founded the Institute for Women and Technology and the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.




Education and early life


Borg was born Anita Borg Naffz in Chicago, Illinois. She grew up in Palatine, Illinois; Kaneohe, Hawaii; and Mukilteo, Washington. Borg got her first programming job in 1969. Although she loved math while growing up, she did not originally intend to go into computer science and taught herself how to program while working at a small insurance company. She was awarded a PhD in Computer Science by New York University in 1981 for research investigating the synchronization efficiency of operating systems supervised by Robert Dewar and Gerald Belpaire.
She died from brain cancer, in Sonoma, California on 6 April 2003.




Career


After receiving her PhD, Borg spent four years building a fault tolerant Unix-based operating system, first for Auragen Systems Corp. of New Jersey and then with Nixdorf Computer in Germany.
In 1986, she began working for Digital Equipment Corporation, where she spent 12 years, first at the Western Research Laboratory. While at Digital Equipment, she developed and patented a method for generating complete address traces for analyzing and designing high-speed memory systems. Her experience running the ever-expanding Systers mailing list, which she founded in 1987, led her to work in email communication. As a consultant engineer in the Network Systems Laboratory under Brian Reid, she developed MECCA, an email and Web-based system for communicating in virtual communities.
In 1997, Borg left Digital Equipment Corporation and began working as a researcher in the Office of the Chief Technology Officer at Xerox PARC. Soon after starting at Xerox, she founded the Institute for Women and Technology, having previously founded the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in 1994.




= Advocacy for technical women

=
Borg passionately believed in working for greater representation of women in technology. Her goal was to have 50% representation for women in computing by 2020. She strove for technical fields to be places where women would be equally represented at all levels of the pipeline, and where women could impact, and benefit from, technology.




= Systers

=
In 1987, Borg founded Systers, the first email network for women in technology. While attending the Symposium on Operating Systems Principles (SOSP), she was struck by how few women were present at the conference. She and six or seven other women met in the ladies' room and talked about how few women there were in computing. A dozen of the women at the conference made plans to eat lunch together, and that is where the idea for Systers was formed.
Systers was established to provide a private space for its members to seek input and share advice based on their common experiences. Systers membership was limited to women with highly technical training and discussions were strictly confined to technical issues. Borg oversaw Systers until 2000. Systers occasionally tackled issues that were not highly technical but pertained to its members. In 1992, when Mattel Inc. began selling a Barbie doll that said math class is tough, the voices of protest that started with the Systers list played a role in getting Mattel to remove that phrase from Barbie's microchip.




= Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing

=
In 1994, Anita Borg and Telle Whitney founded the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. With the initial idea of creating a conference by and for women computer scientists, Borg and Whitney met over dinner, with a blank sheet of paper, having no idea how to start a conference, and started to plan out their vision. The first Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing was held in Washington, D.C., in June 1994, and brought together 500 technical women.




= Institute for Women and Technology

=
In 1997, Borg founded the Institute for Women and Technology (now the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology). Two important goals behind the founding of the organization were to increase the representation of women in technical fields and to enable the creation of more technology by women. When founded, the institute was housed at Xerox PARC, although it was an independent nonprofit organization. The institute was created to be an experimental R&D organization focusing on increasing the impact of women on technology and increasing the impact of technology on the world's women. It ran a variety of programs to increase the role of technology, build the pipeline of technical women, and ensure that women's voices affected technological developments.
In 2002, Telle Whitney took over as president and CEO of the institute, and in 2003, it was renamed in honor of Borg. Since its foundation, the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology has increased its programs in the United States and expanded internationally, more than quadrupling in size.




= Awards and recognition

=
Borg was recognized for her accomplishments as a computer scientist, as well as for her work on behalf of women in computing. She received the Augusta Ada Lovelace Award from the Association for Women in Computing for her work on behalf of women in the computing field in 1995. In 1996 she was inducted as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery. In 1999, President Bill Clinton appointed her to the Presidential Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering, and Technology. She was charged with recommending strategies to the nation for increasing the breadth of participation fields for women.
In 2002, she was awarded the 8th Annual Heinz Award for Technology, the Economy and Employment. Also in 2002, Borg received an Honorary Doctor of Science and Technology degree from Carnegie Mellon University
Borg received the EFF Pioneer Award from the Electronic Frontier Foundation and was recognized by the Girl Scouts of the USA, as well as listed on Open Computing Magazine's Top 100 Women in Computing. Borg was also a member of the board of directors of the Computing Research Association and served as a member of the National Research Council's Committee on Women in Science and Engineering.




= Legacy

=
In 1999, Borg was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She continued to lead the Institute for Women and Technology until 2002. She died on April 6, 2003, in Sonoma, California.
In 2003, the Institute for Women and Technology was renamed to the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology, in honor of Borg.
Several other awards and programs honor Borg's life and work. Google established the Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship in 2004 to honor the work of Borg. As of 2017 this program is known as the Women Techmakers Scholars Program. The program has expanded to include women in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. The UNSW School of Computer Science and Engineering offers the Anita Borg Prize, named in her honor.




References

• Source: AnitaB.org

AnitaB.org (formerly Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology, and Institute for Women in Technology) is a global nonprofit organization based in Belmont, California. Founded by computer scientists Anita Borg and Telle Whitney, the institute's primary aim is to recruit, retain, and advance women in technology.
The institute's most prominent program is the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference, the world's largest gathering of women in computing. From 2002 to 2017, AnitaB.org was led by Telle Whitney, who co-founded the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing with Anita Borg.
AnitaB.org is currently led by Brenda Darden Wilkerson, the former Director of Computer Science and IT Education for Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and founder of the original “Computer Science for All” initiative.




History


AnitaB.org was founded in 1997 by computer scientists Anita Borg and Telle Whitney as the Institute for Women in Technology. The institute was preceded by two of its current programs: Systers and the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference. Systers, the first online community for women in computing, was founded in 1987 by Anita Borg. In 1994, Borg and Whitney organized the first Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.
Anita Borg served as CEO of the Institute for Women in Technology from 1997 to 2002. In 2002, Whitney became president and CEO, and in 2003, the institute was renamed the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology. In 2017, Whitney retired and Brenda Darden Wilkerson took over as president and CEO. The organization was also renamed AnitaB.org.




Mission


Its mission is to increase the impact of women on all aspects of technology, and increase the positive impact of technology on the world's women.




Activities






= Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference

=
The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference is the world's largest gathering of women in computing. Named in honor of Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, the conference is presented by AnitaB.org and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The conference features technical sessions and career sessions, including keynote speakers, a poster session, career fair, and awards ceremony. The 2022 conference was held in a hybrid fashion - Orlando, Florida and virtual. The 2017 conference was held in Orlando, Florida. The 2018 conference was held in Houston, Texas.
The Technical Executive Forum, held annually at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, brings together high-level technology executives to discuss challenges and solutions for recruiting, retaining, and advancing technical women. A two-day workshop for K–12 computer science teachers is also held at the conference, hosted by the Computer Science Teachers Association and the AnitaB.org.




= Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing India

=
The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing India is the largest conference for technical women in India. Established in 2010, the two-day conference is modeled after the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing and includes multiple tracks with keynote speakers, panels, social networking sessions, and a poster session.




= Grace Hopper Regional Consortium

=
The Grace Hopper Regional Consortium is an initiative of AnitaB.org, the ACM Council on Women in Computing, and the National Center for Women & Information Technology. Two-day regional conferences attract between 50 and 200 attendees and include keynote speakers, poster sessions, panel discussions, professional development workshops, birds of a feather (Twitter) sessions, and research presentations. There have been 17 regional conferences to date, with 12 upcoming conferences planned.




= Abie Awards

=
The Abie Awards honor women technologists and those who support women in tech. There are a total of eight Abie Awards: the Technical Leadership Abie Award, Student of Vision Abie Award, Emerging Technologist Abie Award, Educational Abie Award in Honor of A. Richard Newton, Social Impact Abie Award, Technology Entrepreneurship Abie Award, Emerging Leader Abie Award in Honor of Denice Denton, and Change Agent Abie Award.
Previously, AnitaB.org hosted an annual Women of Vision Awards Banquet where three Abie Awards were presented. However, it was decided that it was more fitting to present the Abie Awards at Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC), the world's largest gathering of women technologists. The final Women of Vision Awards Banquet was held in 2016.
Now, five Abie Awards are presented at every GHC (the Technical Leadership Abie Award and Student of Vision Abie Award are awarded every year, while the remaining awards alternate each year). Past Abie Award winners include: Kathy Pham, Noreen Hecmanczuk, Mary Lou Jepsen, Kristina M. Johnson, Mitchell Baker, Helen Greiner, Susan Landau, Justine Cassell, Deborah Estrin, Leah Jamieson, Duy-Loan Le, Radia Perlman, Nimmi Ramanujam, Fei Fei Li, Lisa Su, Rebecca Parsons, Margaret Burnett, and Pamela Samuelson.

The 2022 Abie Award Winners were:

Daphne Koller, Ph.D. (San Francisco, California) - Technical Leadership Award Winner
Kris Dorsey, Ph.D. (Boston, Massachusetts) - Emerging Leader Award in Honor of Denice Denton Award Winner
Katherine Vergara (Santiago, Chile) - Student of Vision Award Winner
Paula Coto (Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina) - Change Agent Award Winner
Neha Narkhede (Menlo Park, California) - Technology Entrepreneurship Award Winner




= Anita Borg Top Company for Technical Women Award

=
The Anita Borg Top Company for Technical Women Award recognizes companies for their recruitment, retention, and advancement of technical women. The first Anita Borg Top Company for Technical Women Award was awarded to IBM in 2011. Subsequent recipients include:

2012 – American Express
2013 – Intel
2014 – Bank of America
2015 – BNY Mellon
2016 – ThoughtWorks
2020 Small Company - The New York Times Company
2020 Medium Sized Company - UKG
2020 - Large Sized Company - ADP
2022 - Small Technical Workforce (<1,000 employees) was awarded to Dev Technology Group. Medium Technical Workforce (1,000-10,000 employees) was awarded to UKG. Large Technical Workforce (>10,000 employees) was awarded to ADP.




= Anita Borg Top Company for Technical Women Workshop

=
The Anita Borg Top Company for Technical Women Workshop provides coverage of best practices for recruiting, retaining, and advancing technical women. Representatives from different companies learn from each other and share practices. Companies participating in the 2011 workshop included CA Technologies, Cisco, Google, IBM, Intel, Intuit, Microsoft Research, SAP, and Symantec.




= TechWomen

=
TechWomen is a professional mentorship and exchange program funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The program brings 38 technical women, aged 25–42, from the Middle East and North Africa to the United States for a five-week mentoring program at technology companies in Silicon Valley. The initiative is administered by the Institute of International Education, in partnership with AnitaB.org.




= Online communities

=
The AnitaB.org runs several email lists and online groups that connect technical women. Systers is the largest email community of technical women in computing in the world and predates AnitaB.org, having been founded in 1987 by Anita Borg. Systers provides a private and gender exclusive space for women in computing to ask personal and technical questions.




= Local communities

=
The AnitaB.org local Communities usually referred to as ABI.local is a network of locally organized communities that bring women technologists together in cities around the world. These communities organize events and meet up, where women in tech get connected, find new opportunities and meet their career goals. ABI.local has been Featured in various cities across the globe including Chicago, London, Nairobi, Amsterdam, Seattle, Tokyo, Houston, New York, Delhi and more.




= Research

=
AnitaB.org publishes research about the state of women in technology. Past reports have focused on mid-level technical women, ethnic minorities in computing, senior technical women, and more.




Corporate partners


AnitaB.org is supported by corporate partners within and outside of the technology sector. Current notable partners include:

In 2017, Forbes, Fortune, and other outlets notably reported that the organization severed ties with Uber over its treatment of female employees and lack of engagement.




See also


Ada Initiative
The Ada Project (TAP)
Anita Borg
Sexism in the technology industry
Women in computing




References






External links


AnitaB.org
Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing
Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing India
TechWomen
Systers
Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference

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• Association for Computing Machinery
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