Women in Computer Science
摘要
This chapter explores the experiences of the first women who entered the newly formed computer science program at the Weizmann Institute of Science in 1969. The discipline of computer science had not attained a formal status at the time, and yet WIS offered a master’s program using curricula and resources borrowed from other institutions. The chapter describes the careers of Michal Politi and Leah Mory-Rauch, two graduates who went on to pursue successful careers in computing. Politi became a software developer and manager at AdCad, working on a system based on Statecharts, a graphical language for finite reactive systems. Mory-Rauch participated in building the GOLEM B computer and its operating system at WIS, later working on computer-aided design (CAD) in the USA and as a system analyst at WIS. Although these women made significant contributions, none pursued academic careers in computer science. The chapter concludes by noting the scarcity of female professors in Israeli computer science until the mid-1990s, and even in the 2020s, despite the absence of formal barriers to women’s participation.