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The first woman PhD in computer science was a nun (2013)

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Re: The first woman PhD in computer science was a nun (2013)

#61

Post by sangnoir »

dhosek wrote: post #37

To be more precise, she was a sister. A nun would be a woman consecrated to religious life who lives cloistered. While "nun" is used colloquially to refer to all women religious, the technical meaning is narrower. As many other commenters have noted, there is a culture of many women religious receiving advanced degrees. One of my college friends who got his PhD in political science at MIT was surprised to discover th…

I'd argue the best known monk in the sciences is Gregor Mendel , who was an Augustinian friar and genetics research pioneer.

As an aside, it always rubs me the wrong way when people insinuate the (Catholic) church is anti-science when the long list of contributions to science says otherwise.

Re: The first woman PhD in computer science was a nun (2013)

#62

Post by erichocean »

fanf2 wrote: post #59
erichocean wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ok, fair enough I never knew this was a common practice. What makes you think it was common practice? Exceptions are a thing…

For an example of it being not just common but in some cases required to dismiss women when they married, see "The Marriage Bar" at https://civilservant.org.uk/women-history.html

I'm talking about forming all-married women businesses. I'd be shocked if that was common, but if you have data showing otherwise, I'm happy to be corrected...

Re: The first woman PhD in computer science was a nun (2013)

#63

Post by dhosek »

sangnoir wrote: post #61
dhosek wrote: post #37

To be more precise, she was a sister. A nun would be a woman consecrated to religious life who lives cloistered. While "nun" is used colloquially to refer to all women religious, the technical meaning is narrower. As many other commenters have noted, there is a culture of many women religious receiving advanced degrees. One of my college friends who got his PhD in political science at MIT was surprised to discover th…

I'd argue the best known monk in the sciences is Gregor Mendel , who was an Augustinian friar and genetics research pioneer. As an aside, it always rubs me the wrong way when people insinuate the (Catholic) church is anti-science when the long list of contributions to science says otherwise.

True that. I was thinking the best-known living brother in the sciences.

Plus, I've met Brother Guy. He's really cool.

Re: The first woman PhD in computer science was a nun (2013)

#65

Post by mattkevan »

There’s also Sister Catherine Wybourne, AKA The Digital Nun.

She’s a web and app developer and new media pioneer - and her monastery’s primary income comes through development and consulting services.

I went to a talk of hers on social media years ago and it was excellent.

“Being cloistered doesn't mean that you have to have an enclosed mind, or an enclosed approach to things.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11511596/Meet-...

Re: The first woman PhD in computer science was a nun (2013)

#66

Post by joshuaissac »

hashhar wrote: post #46
fanf2 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first PhD in computing was David Wheeler in 1951 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Wheeler_(computer_scient...

His PhD was in Mathematics AFAIR. Also note that the Wikipedia article is missing a citation on that point and further discussion on the talk page.

The claim is properly referenced now.

Re: The first woman PhD in computer science was a nun (2013)

#67

Post by rodgerd »

fanf2 wrote: post #23
befeltingu wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody is demanding that. It could just be that they want to.

Steve Shirley https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Shirley was able to found a computing consultancy business in the 1960s staffed entirely by women that had been fired when they got married, as was the usual practise at the time.

It was the norm for banks in New Zealand, through to the sixties and early seventies, to require women to have a letter of permission from their father or husband in order to get a job.

Source: have seen the ads specifying such.

Re: The first woman PhD in computer science was a nun (2013)

#69

Post by jdtang13 »

Okay. Now, where are the details about her religious life? What did she believe in and care about? It was obviously very important to her, to the extent that she made serious monastic vows. When a movie actor is a life-long alcoholic, we happily include that in the biography; but when we are speaking about Catholic sisters, we whitewash it away from their lives? Pretty disappointing considering that the headline is "[she] was a nun".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisters_of_Charity_of_the_Bles...

Re: The first woman PhD in computer science was a nun (2013)

#70

Post by vanderZwan »

doorstar wrote: post #44
wefarrell wrote: post #15

My great aunt who is a nun got a masters in Chemistry in the 1950s. She said that the only other women in her program were nuns.

Karen Armstrong ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Armstrong ) said in her memoirs that when she turned 18 in 1962 she knew she didn't want to be a wife and mother, so she figured that she must have been "called" to become a nun. It is hard to overstate the social pressure women were under to discard any life goals besides "motherhood" for a long time. My MIL has a math degree but knew full well that she might as…

> My MIL has a math degree but knew full well that she might as well put in in the shredder once she got married. It's still kind of a painful subject for her honestly.

Goodness, I can imagine. If I was not given the chance to apply anything that I learned over the last two decades and was only allowed to do household chores and look after kids - as much as I'm looking forward to raising children - I would be extremely sad

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