born from misogyny or equality? let's learn about the birth of the internet

commemorative plaque at the Alpine Inn Beer Garden in Portola Valley, California, the former Rossotti's.

through this I'm going to try to say "wireless network" as little as possible, because trust me, I understand it just as little as the average 19 year old. but first: small recap. in Ben Tarnoff's how the internet was invented, we get a play by play on how the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), AKA the US defense department/main contributor to the start of the internet actually went about forming it. yeah, the military is the reason we have the internet. not for basic communication or greater access to knowledge, no, those are just side effects of the original plan.

ARPA had already built a connecting network that linked university, government agency, and defense contractor mainframes all across the states; ARPANET. but, this was only over fixed links and was not mobile yet. stick with me! so, the computers could not send information to soldiers deployed beyond enemy lines for example. simple, right?

hardware for computer communications at ARPA.

it's kinda disappointing though, because when we use the internet today, it is for connecting to the world around us, learning all that we want, and communicating. but, the reality is that the internet was created, much like every other major power in this world, as a hypermasculine western force.

the military is a male dominated force. lets not play around it. there is still sexism and gender inequality in the military today after all of the steps for inclusion and acceptance. while the US military allowed women to join as permanent members in 1948, women were still barred from the Military Service Academies (MSAs) until late 1976. this makes it clearer that the internet was brought about specifically for American men to dominate over the Middle East. a bit of a bummer, right? stick with me for just another minute for some possible hope.

Rossotti's, 27 August 1976. there you would find seven men huddled around an outdoor table with a woman typing on a comically large computer. cables run from the computer to a machine in a large gray van. whatever the woman typed was turned into packets of data and transmitted through an antenna atop the van into radio signals, then repeated to be amplified and broadcasted.

the van parked outside of Rossotti's converting signals.

Tarnoff's article really barely touched on the key facts of this moment. this first experiment connecting the wireless network (sorry) to the wired network of ARPANET was a complete success, thanks to a woman. while the planning done by Cerf and Kahn was important, these eight individuals made history. or they should have, if anyone knew their names aside from the leader of the group, Don Neilson. but really think about that for a moment: the first individual to successfully transmit packets of data and converge the two networks of wired and wireless was a woman, yet also I cant find her name anywhere.

after hours searching, all that is said about these revolutionists was that it was a group effort between Don Neilson and his fellow scientists along with everyone behind the scenes. even in this image, while it is noted she was the one typing, the woman is seen uncomfortably standing with a man sat in front of the computer.

SRI researchers captured by Don Neilson, 1976

so how do we treat the birth of the internet? it was created to serve a western hypermasculine violent force, a woman was responsible for transmitting radio signals, yet she goes without recognition today.

Emma Goldberg's article women built tech industry then they were pushed out touches on how women were initially at the forefront of the coding and programming industry. over 50% of the programmers selected to work on the US military's first computer in 1946 were women. and it was Margaret Hamilton who led her coding team to get Apollo 11 to the moon. female programmers were known for their "meticulous work ethic and attention to detail" according to Goldberg. women did not have higher status as coders, it was believed to be work that they could manage, yet it still seems like we were headed in the right direction. so what changed?

as all things do, it came down to money. engineering jobs became higher status and started receiving much better pay by the time the 1960s rolled around. by the 1960s computer programming was a $20 billion industry. as soon as programming became obviously valuable, the industry turned on women and saw then as unfit. this job was not physically demanding but precise and particular, exactly what was said to be a perfect female job. oh, but wait no way should a woman earn a livable wage thought men. so the new norm for coders became antisocial unempathetic men, "forming today’s now pervasive stereotype of a nerdy, anti-social coder"notes Goldberg.

back to Tarnoff's article, it really left a bitter taste in my mouth. the woman to physically launch the internet had no spotlight. she still does not get well deserved recognition by being framed as unimportant to the experiment. just as Goldberg said, "technologist jobs were considered menial." so the women of that time are still not appreciated for their work.

first electrical computer, University of Pennsylvania 1946

the internet was born from misogyny and thrives off of it. all we can try to do today is find the space in the internet that welcomes all femmes and make that the new norm. its baby steps. cause it's hard to just say every woman should be a computer programmer because clearly there is a lot of gender based discrimination in that area of work. but every person just needs to give empathy a try. empathy is not an inherently feminine trait, and if more men embrace empathy, it would be a huge step towards some form of equality in this world.

related: a woman finds her voice through coding.