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{{Infobox person
{{Infobox person
| name = Elsie Shutt
| name = Elsie Shutt
| birth_name = Elsie Goedeke
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1928}}
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1928}}
| birth_place = [[New York City]]
| birth_place = [[New York City]]
| education = [[Goucher College]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]])
| education = [[Goucher College]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]])
| occupation = {{hlist|Technology entrepreneur}}
| occupation = {{hlist|Technology [[entrepreneur]]}}
| known_for = “The excitement of designing a system: . . . finding out what the problem is; analyzing it; designing something that will make it work; and then doing it. And seeing it work, and having a client who is happy with it. That’s very satisfying.” - Elsie Shutt, 2001
| known_for = “The excitement of designing a system: . . . finding out what the problem is; analyzing it; designing something that will make it work; doing it; seeing it work, and having a client who is happy with it. That’s very satisfying.” - Elsie Shutt, 2001
}}
}}
'''Elsie Shutt''' (born 1928) is an American [[computer programmer]] and entrepreneur who founded Computations Incorporated (CompInc) in 1957, when she was not permitted to work part-time at home after she became pregnant. Shutt was notably one of the first women to start a software business not only in the United States but the entire world.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/10/17/356944145/episode-576-when-women-stopped-coding|title=Episode 576: When Women Stopped Coding|work=NPR.org|access-date=2018-08-12|language=en}}</ref><ref name="Abbate2012" /><ref>{{cite web|author=Janet Abbate|url=http://theweek.com/articles/442965/women-who-shaped-computer-age|title=The women who shaped the computer age|date=21 October 2014|website=Theweek.com}}</ref>
'''Elsie Shutt''' ([[Birth name#Maiden and married names|née]] Goedeke, born 1928) is an American [[computer programmer|technology]] entrepreneur. She founded Computations Incorporated (CompInc.) in 1958.<ref name="oral2" /> She was among the first women to establish a software business in the [[United States]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |title=Episode 576: When Women Stopped Coding |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/10/17/356944145/episode-576-when-women-stopped-coding |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180809120317/https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2014/10/17/356944145/episode-576-when-women-stopped-coding |archive-date=2018-08-09 |access-date=2018-08-12 |work=NPR.org |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Abbate2012">{{cite book |author=Janet Abbate |url=https://archive.org/details/recodinggenderwo0000abba |title=Recoding Gender: Women's Changing Participation in Computing |publisher=MIT Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-262-01806-7 |author-link=Janet Abbate |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Janet Abbate|url=http://theweek.com/articles/442965/women-who-shaped-computer-age|title=The women who shaped the computer age|date=21 October 2014|website=Theweek.com}}</ref>


==Early life and education==
==Early life and education==
Elsie Shutt was born in [[New York City]] and grew up in [[Baltimore|Baltimore, Maryland]]. After her father died when she was four, her mother worked as a chemistry technician at [[Johns Hopkins Hospital]].<ref name=oral>{{cite web|url=https://ethw.org/Oral-History:Elsie_Shutt|title=Oral-History:Elsie Shutt - Engineering and Technology History Wiki|website=Ethw.org|access-date=18 February 2019}}</ref> Shutt attended [[Eastern High School (Baltimore)|Eastern High School]] in Baltimore and graduated with an undergraduate degree at age 20 from [[Goucher College]], from which her mother had also graduated with a degree in chemistry.<ref name="Abbate2012" /> Shutt went on to complete a graduate fellowship at [[Radcliffe College]] in mathematics. She became the second ever female teacher after the famous [[Lisl Gaal|Lisl Novak Gaal.]] Shutt taught remedial trigonometry to Harvard students, also making her the first female graduate student to do so.<ref name="oral" /> Following this, Shutt was awarded a [[Fulbright Program|Fulbright scholarship]] to teach [[English language|English]] in [[France]].<ref name="Abbate2012">{{cite book|author=Janet Abbate|author-link=Janet Abbate|title=Recoding Gender: Women's Changing Participation in Computing|url=https://archive.org/details/recodinggenderwo0000abba|url-access=registration|year=2012|publisher=MIT Press|isbn=978-0-262-01806-7}}</ref>
Elsie Shutt was born in [[New York City]] and raised in [[Baltimore]], [[Maryland]], [[United States|USA]].<ref name="oral2" /> Her father died when she was four years old.<ref name="oral2" /> As a result, she was predominantly raised by her mother and her maternal grandfather with whom she and her mother lived with in Baltimore.<ref name="oral2" /> She attended [[Eastern High School (Baltimore, Maryland)|Eastern High School]] in Baltimore and graduated at the age of 16.<ref name="oral2" /> Shutt graduated from [[Goucher College]] as a math major with a minor in chemistry at the age of 20.<ref name="oral2" /> After receiving a [[Pepsi-Cola]] graduate fellowship for graduate school she covered full tuition and some living expenses, Shutt continued her math studies at [[Radcliffe College]].<ref name="oral2" />


==Career==
==Career==


=== Early years ===
=== Early years ===
Shutt learned to program on [[ENIAC]] successor [[ORDVAC]] (Ordnance Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) under Dick Clippinger during a summer job at U.S. Army's [[Aberdeen Proving Ground]] in Maryland.<ref name="Abbate2012" /><ref name=":3">{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/13/magazine/women-coding-computer-programming.html|title=The Secret History of Women in Coding|first=Clive|last=Thompson|date=13 February 2019|access-date=18 February 2019|website=Nytimes.com}}</ref> In 1953 Shutt was hired at [[Raytheon Company|Raytheon]] (an aerospace and defense manufacturing company) by her old boss, Dick Clippinger. There, she started work on software for the Raycom computer.<ref name="Abbate2012" /><ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2573&context=cmc_theses|date=2017|title=A New Frontier: But for Whom? An Analysis of the Micro-Computer and Women's Declining Participation in Computer Science|author=Eliana Keinan|website=Scholarship.claremont.edu|access-date=18 February 2019}}</ref> When she became pregnant in 1957, Massachusetts state law required her to quit Raytheon.<ref name="Abbate2012" /> However, Raytheon began to refer Shutt to their clients because the company was scaling back its outside programming projects. Shutt began doing freelance programming work from her home.<ref name="Abbate2012" /><ref name="oral" /> This work was done for over a year with her friend [[Irma Wyman]].<ref name="Abbate2012" /> Shutt eventually decided to pursue the entrepreneurial venture of starting a business that would give women part-time work in this technical field, an opportunity that was nonexistent before.<ref name="Abbate2012" /><ref name=":3" />
Shutt learned to program on the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer ([[ENIAC]]) under Dick Clippinger during a summer job at the U.S. Army's [[Aberdeen Proving Ground]] in Maryland.<ref name="Abbate2012" /><ref name=":3">{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/13/magazine/women-coding-computer-programming.html|title=The Secret History of Women in Coding|first=Clive|last=Thompson|date=13 February 2019|access-date=18 February 2019|website=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> In 1953, Shutt was hired at [[Raytheon Company|Raytheon]] (an aerospace and defense manufacturing company), where she worked on software for the Raycom computer.<ref name="Abbate2012" /><ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2573&context=cmc_theses|date=2017|title=A New Frontier: But for Whom? An Analysis of the Micro-Computer and Women's Declining Participation in Computer Science|author=Eliana Keinan|website=Scholarship.claremont.edu|access-date=18 February 2019}}</ref> By 1957, Shutt was working as a freelance programmer from her home, and in 1958 she founded her company '''Computations Incorporated''<nowiki/>'.
⚫
=== Computations, Incorporated (CompInc.) ===
Elsie Shutt's founding of Computations Incorporated was a development for gender equality in [[computer science]]–a historically male-dominated field. According to [[Janet Abbate]], author of ''Recoding Gender: Women's Changing Participation in Computing'', Shutt was among the early pioneers who showed that women could excel in programming and systems analysis while also managing family responsibilities.


CompInc became renowned for its high-quality software solutions, which were provided to major clients such as [[Raytheon]] and the [[United States Air Force|U.S. Air Force.]]<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Recoding Gender |url=https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262534536/recoding-gender/ |access-date=2024-09-17 |website=MIT Press |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name="oral2">{{cite web |title=Oral-History:Elsie Shutt - Engineering and Technology History Wiki |url=https://ethw.org/Oral-History:Elsie_Shutt |access-date=18 February 2019 |website=Ethw.org}}</ref><ref name=":22">{{Cite journal |date=March 1963 |title=Mixing Math and Motherhood |journal=Business Week |pages=86–87}}</ref> Shutt led the company for more than 45 years. Preferentially hiring women with young children, Shutt worked to increase women's chances of obtaining programming employment.<ref name="Abbate20122">{{cite book |author=Janet Abbate |author-link=Janet Abbate |url=https://archive.org/details/recodinggenderwo0000abba |title=Recoding Gender: Women's Changing Participation in Computing |publisher=MIT Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-262-01806-7 |url-access=registration}}</ref> The company also offered additional training programs to low-experience employees.<ref name="Abbate20122" />
⚫
=== Computations Incorporated ===
Shutt founded Computations Incorporated (Comp Inc.) in 1957, as a primarily all-female company in the early era when software companies worked part time from homes as freelancers.<ref name="Abbate2012" /><ref name=":0" /><ref>Schafer, Valérie, and Benjamin G. Thierry. Connecting Women. Springer, 2015.(p.x)</ref><ref>Shirley, Steve. "II. THE DISTRIBUTED OFFICE." Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 135.5371 (1987): 503-514.</ref><ref name="SchaferThierry2015">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qwG0CgAAQBAJ&pg=PR10|title=Connecting Women: Women, Gender and ICT in Europe in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century|date=8 October 2015|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-319-20837-4|pages=10–|author1=Valérie Schafer|author2=Benjamin G. Thierry}}</ref> Comp Inc., a Harvard, Massachusetts-based company, utilized systems analysis and design along with programming help for both the business and scientific industries.<ref name="Abbate2012" /> Early employees, Elaine Kamowitz and Barbara Wade, who previously worked as freelancers before being incorporated, also bore children. Shutt reportedly refused to hire more than 13 staff members and led the company for more than 45 years.<ref name="Abbate2012" /> At the time, it was highly unusual for pregnant women to continue in their professional endeavors, leading some to dub Shutt and her employees "the pregnant programmers."<ref name="oral" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|date=March 1963|title=Mixing Math and Motherhood|journal=Business Week|pages=86–87}}</ref> She began Comp Inc. to prove that women could still hold programming occupations while taking care of a family—having a baby did not detract from their technical expertise.<ref name="Abbate2012" /> Shutt employed preferential hiring of young women with little children.<ref name="Abbate2012" /> She hoped that by doing this she would increase a woman's chance of getting a full-time job as a programmer once her children grew up.<ref name="Abbate2012" /> Even women with no experience were hired because there was a training program in place.<ref name="Abbate2012" /> Comp Inc.'s employees were mainly women with a few men, but all the partners were women.<ref name="Abbate2012" /> The company's primary clients were the United States government and the science, education, and business industries.<ref name="Abbate2012" /><ref name=":2" /> Computations, Inc. also emphasized “desk-checking” between employees (manually checking each other's code), and clients claimed they saved as much as 50% by outsourcing to Shutt's company.<ref name="Abbate 2012">{{Cite book|last=Abbate|first=Janet|date=2012|title=Recoding Gender|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9014.001.0001|doi=10.7551/mitpress/9014.001.0001|isbn=9780262305464}}</ref> At its peak, her company entered into contracts with [[Honeywell|Minneapolis-Honeywell]],<ref name=":2" /> [[Raytheon]],<ref name=":2" /> [https://www.tidewaternews.com/2014/06/07/remembering-the-st-regis-paper-company/ St. Regis Paper Co.],<ref name=":2" /> [[Harvard University]],<ref name=":2" /> [[University of Rochester|The University of Rochester]],<ref name=":2" /> and the [[United States Air Force]].<ref name=":2" /><ref name="Friedan1998">{{cite book|author=Betty Friedan|title=It Changed My Life: Writings on the Women's Movement|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iv4-Qy82BJ0C&pg=PA46|year=1998|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-46885-6|page=46}}</ref>

=== Personal life ===
Shutt had the support of her husband, both emotionally, financially, and domestically, and even hired a babysitter to work every Wednesday, so she could offer that day without having to tell the client she would have to look for a sitter.<ref name="Abbate 2012"/> She enjoyed the days with her children and would rent computer time from companies during “non-prime times” who wanted to keep their computers on in the evening.<ref name="oral" />


The company utilized systems analysis and design along with programming help for primary clients.<ref name="Abbate20122" /><ref name=":22" /> Computations, Inc. also emphasized “[[Desk checking|desk-checking]]” between employees, manually reviewing each other's code. At its peak, her company entered into contracts with [[Honeywell|Minneapolis-Honeywell]],<ref name=":22" /> [[Raytheon]],<ref name=":22" /> [https://www.tidewaternews.com/2014/06/07/remembering-the-st-regis-paper-company/ St. Regis Paper Co.],<ref name=":22" /> [[Harvard University]],<ref name=":22" /> [[University of Rochester|The University of Rochester]],<ref name=":22" /> and the [[United States Air Force]].<ref name=":22" /><ref name="Friedan1998">{{cite book|author=Betty Friedan|title=It Changed My Life: Writings on the Women's Movement|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iv4-Qy82BJ0C&pg=PA46|year=1998|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-46885-6|page=46}}</ref>
==References==
==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Reflist}}



==Further reading==

"Mixing Math and Motherhood." Business Week, March 2, 1963, 86.
{{Authority control}}
{{Authority control}}


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[[Category:20th-century American businesspeople]]
[[Category:20th-century American businesspeople]]
[[Category:20th-century American businesswomen]]
[[Category:20th-century American businesswomen]]
[[Category:21st-century American women]]

Latest revision as of 20:04, 30 November 2024

Elsie Shutt
Born
Elsie Goedeke

1928 (age 95–96)
New York City
EducationGoucher College (B.A.)
Occupation
Known for“The excitement of designing a system: . . . finding out what the problem is; analyzing it; designing something that will make it work; doing it; seeing it work, and having a client who is happy with it. That’s very satisfying.” - Elsie Shutt, 2001

Elsie Shutt (née Goedeke, born 1928) is an American technology entrepreneur. She founded Computations Incorporated (CompInc.) in 1958.[1] She was among the first women to establish a software business in the United States.[2][3][4]

Early life and education

[edit]

Elsie Shutt was born in New York City and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, USA.[1] Her father died when she was four years old.[1] As a result, she was predominantly raised by her mother and her maternal grandfather with whom she and her mother lived with in Baltimore.[1] She attended Eastern High School in Baltimore and graduated at the age of 16.[1] Shutt graduated from Goucher College as a math major with a minor in chemistry at the age of 20.[1] After receiving a Pepsi-Cola graduate fellowship for graduate school she covered full tuition and some living expenses, Shutt continued her math studies at Radcliffe College.[1]

Career

[edit]

Early years

[edit]

Shutt learned to program on the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) under Dick Clippinger during a summer job at the U.S. Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.[3][5] In 1953, Shutt was hired at Raytheon (an aerospace and defense manufacturing company), where she worked on software for the Raycom computer.[3][6] By 1957, Shutt was working as a freelance programmer from her home, and in 1958 she founded her company 'Computations Incorporated'.

Computations, Incorporated (CompInc.)

[edit]

Elsie Shutt's founding of Computations Incorporated was a development for gender equality in computer science–a historically male-dominated field. According to Janet Abbate, author of Recoding Gender: Women's Changing Participation in Computing, Shutt was among the early pioneers who showed that women could excel in programming and systems analysis while also managing family responsibilities.

CompInc became renowned for its high-quality software solutions, which were provided to major clients such as Raytheon and the U.S. Air Force.[7][1][8] Shutt led the company for more than 45 years. Preferentially hiring women with young children, Shutt worked to increase women's chances of obtaining programming employment.[9] The company also offered additional training programs to low-experience employees.[9]

The company utilized systems analysis and design along with programming help for primary clients.[9][8] Computations, Inc. also emphasized “desk-checking” between employees, manually reviewing each other's code. At its peak, her company entered into contracts with Minneapolis-Honeywell,[8] Raytheon,[8] St. Regis Paper Co.,[8] Harvard University,[8] The University of Rochester,[8] and the United States Air Force.[8][10]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "Oral-History:Elsie Shutt - Engineering and Technology History Wiki". Ethw.org. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
  2. ^ "Episode 576: When Women Stopped Coding". NPR.org. Archived from the original on 2018-08-09. Retrieved 2018-08-12.
  3. ^ a b c Janet Abbate (2012). Recoding Gender: Women's Changing Participation in Computing. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-01806-7.
  4. ^ Janet Abbate (21 October 2014). "The women who shaped the computer age". Theweek.com.
  5. ^ Thompson, Clive (13 February 2019). "The Secret History of Women in Coding". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
  6. ^ Eliana Keinan (2017). "A New Frontier: But for Whom? An Analysis of the Micro-Computer and Women's Declining Participation in Computer Science". Scholarship.claremont.edu. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
  7. ^ "Recoding Gender". MIT Press. Retrieved 2024-09-17.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h "Mixing Math and Motherhood". Business Week: 86–87. March 1963.
  9. ^ a b c Janet Abbate (2012). Recoding Gender: Women's Changing Participation in Computing. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-01806-7.
  10. ^ Betty Friedan (1998). It Changed My Life: Writings on the Women's Movement. Harvard University Press. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-674-46885-6.
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