These 6 women got written out of tech history. They're finally being recognized.
The dawn of the Digital Revolution was ushered in by 6 women in Philadelphia in the mid-1900s.
70 years ago, six Philadelphia women were recruited by the United States Army for a very special project.
In 1942, Betty Jean Jennings Bartik, Kathleen McNulty Mauchly Antonelli, Ruth Lichterman Teitelbaum, Frances Bilas Spence, Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer, and Betty Snyder Holberton were chosen to work on a classified government project known as the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, or ENIAC.
Considered to be the world's first "general-purpose" computer, the ENIAC was built with the goal of more quickly calculating the ballistics trajectories of missiles during wartime.
Even though the women all hailed from mathematical backgrounds, they'd never operated such a massive computer before.
In fact, almost no one in the U.S. had.
So they started out with a three-month crash course in Aberdeen, Pennsylvania, where they learned the many different computing systems necessary to run the ENIAC.
Photo of "the world's first computer" via International Communications Agency/Wikimedia Commons.
Upon their return to the Moore School of Engineering in Philadelphia, the six women were thrust headfirst into the ENIAC program and given little more than a stack of wiring diagrams for the computer's many panels as their guide.
The ENIAC was equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes, 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors, and 5 million hand-soldered joints.
Weighing a few dozen tons and filling a 1,500-square-foot room, it was a monstrosity that was as physically demanding to operate as it was mentally tasking.
Working double and triple shifts six days a week, this ragtag crew of six female "computers" (which was a job title back then) lugged cables and trays between panels on the massive machine. Occasionally they even had to crawl inside it to fix faulty tubes.
"Betty [Holberton] and I were the workhorses and finishers, tying up loose ends," said Jean Bartik in a 2011 interview, echoing Holberton's notorious motto, "Look like a girl, act like a lady, and work like a dog."
It was exhausting, backbreaking work, but these six women helped to usher in the dawn of the Digital Revolution.
They were essentially the first computer programmers in the U.S.
Meanwhile, I still can't figure out how to hook up an HDMI cable to my TV. GIF via Computer History Archives, used with permission.
When the ENIAC was unveiled on Feb. 15, 1946, it was lauded by the press as a "Giant Brain" because of its otherworldly speed. It could compute complex mathematical equations up to 10,000 times faster than any other electro-mechanical machines in existence.
Of course, being that this was the 1940s, the revolutionary work of these women specifically was almost completely overlooked.
Despite debugging every last issue that the ENIAC faced and teaching the technology to their male replacements when they returned home from World War II, the women were treated as little more than models to show off the machine. In fact, they weren't even invited to the celebratory dinner that was held after the unveiling ceremony.
A utility model of the ENIAC. Photo by Keystone for Getty Images.
"We thought that was terrible," said Bartik in an interview with CNN. "It was not a secret. The only problem was nobody was interested. They didn't know anything about it."
Thankfully, these technological trailblazers are finally receiving their due credit ... more than 50 years later.
In 1997, all six women were inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame. That same year, Holberton received the Augusta Ada Lovelace Award, the highest award given by the Association of Women in Computing.
In 2011, the Philadelphia City Council officially declared Feb. 15 as ENIAC Day in honor of the group's extraordinary work, and just last year, the Holberton School, a project-based school for software engineers, was founded in San Francisco.
The long-unexplored story of the team's groundbreaking work was also brought to light in the 2014 documentary, "The Computers," thanks to the efforts of The ENIAC Programmers Project.
Another batch of female computer engineers. Photo from U.S. Army.
Anyone who owns a smartphone or computer owes a huge debt of gratitude to the work of these pioneering women.
But let's not forget that there's still progress to be made for women who work in technology, even now.
To this day, women still only account for a fraction of technology-based jobs, due in part to the ridiculous stereotype that they "just aren't cut out for it." Sadly, Google's 30% female employment rate represents one of the highest percentages in the tech industry — this despite a recent gender-blind study of GitHub coding suggesting that women measure up as slightly better coders than men.
To put it simply, diversity in business is good for business (duh).
A more diverse talent pool means a broader range of perspectives when it comes to problem-solving and innovation. Statistically speaking, women have also risen to become one of the most important demographic in the technology industry and users of a far wider variety of technology than their male counterparts.
A lack of diversity in tech can actually hurt businesses, according to a study published in McKinsey: "Businesses in the top quartile in terms of racial and ethnic diversity are 35% more like to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians."
We should already know this. Holberton, Antonelli, and four other women proved it over 70 years ago. Thousands of women are still proving it today.
And since this whole "technology" thing ain't slowing down any time soon, we're left with two simple options: We start giving women the recognition (and employment) they deserve in the tech industry, or we get used to "reprogramming" our smartphones the only way that most of us know how:
"Can you hang on a sec? I think you're BREAKING UP." GIF via "Entourage."
American portion sizes are colossal.
Tax shouldn't be a not-so-fun surprise at the end of your shopping trip. 
A trip to the doctor shouldn't break the bank.
This totally isn't weird at all. Right?
It's a choice. 
America loves extra sugar in savory foods.
Princess Odette Girl GIF by The Swan Princess 
Rose GIF 
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river phoenix 80s GIF 
All of this will be ours one day. Yay. 
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TV for waking. TV for sleep. 
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Mom is totally humiliated after her kindergartner tells the teacher what she does for work
She was clearly mortified.
A mom is embarrassed by her child.
One of the great joys and stresses of parenting is that you never know what will come out of your child’s mouth. When you have young, inquisitive kids, they can say really inappropriate things to people without realizing they were being rude or possibly offensive. TikTok influencer Aurora McCausland (@auroramccausland), known for her DIY cleaning tips, recently told a funny story on the platform about how her son believes she makes a living. The problem was that she heard about it from her child's teacher.
Mom is embarrassed by her child
“The other day, I went and picked my five year old up from school and when I get to his classroom his teacher pulls me inside and says, ‘Hey, today he wanted to tell us about what Mommy does for work and said that Mommy makes videos in her bedroom but only when I'm [he’s] not at home,” McCausland recalled.
Given her body language while telling the story, McCausland was clearly mortified after hearing what her child said to his teacher. It makes it look like she may be posting videos to adult sites while her child is at school, which most people wouldn’t want their son’s teacher to know about.
The good news is that another teacher was there to clarify the young boy's comments by adding, “I think she makes TikTok videos.” The uncomfortable situation was a great invitation to chat with her son about what she does for a living. “So I have to have a conversation with my son about how he tells people what I do for work,” she finished her video.
The funny video went viral, earning over 1.7 million views on TikTok, and inspired many people to share the times when their children had funny ways of explaining their careers. The commenters were a great reminder to parents everywhere that if your child says something embarrassing, it's ok, just about everyone has been through it.
Moms share their most embarrassing moments
A lot of parents spoke up in the comments to show McCausland that she's not the only one to feel embarrassed in front of her child's teacher.
"My son told everyone that we were homeless (because we don’t own our home, we rent)," KBR wrote.
"I work in ortho.. my daughter told her teacher I steal people's knees bc she heard me talking to my husband about a knee replacement," Aingeal wrote.
"My son told a teacher we were living in our car over the summer. Camping. We went camping," Kera wrote.
"In kinder, my son thought Red Bull was alcohol and told his teacher I liked to have beer on the way to school," Ashley wrote.
My niece told her teacher her mom and dad work at the wh*re house. They work at the courthouse," Ellis wrote.
"My husband works as a table games dealer at a casino. Kindergartener, 'Daddy's a Dealer!' We now start every school year clearly stating he works at the casino," CMAC
"My son said we lived in a crack house…There’s a tiny chip in the wall from the doorknob," KNWerner wrote.
"My dad is a hospice chaplain and officiates a lot of funerals. My son and nephew were asked by their preschool teacher if their papa was retired or had a job. They told her his job was to kill people," Tiffyd wrote.
"My son said "my dad left me and I'm all alone" to a random person at the zoo. My husband was just at work," Shelby.
"I am now in my 70s. In my gradeschool, during the McCarthy era, I told my teacher my dad was a communist. He was an economist," Crackerbelly wrote.
"In Kindergarten, my daughter told her teacher that mommy drinks and drives all the time. Coffee. From Starbucks," Jessica wrote.
"Well I once told my kindergarden teacher a man climbs over our fence to visit my mom when her husband is not home... It was a handy man who came to fix gates when they were stuck," Annie wrote.
Ultimately, McCausland’s story is a fun reminder of how children see things through their own unique lens and, with total innocence, can say some of the funniest things. It’s also a great warning to parents everywhere: if you aren’t clear with your kids about what you do for a living, you may be setting yourself up for a very embarrassing misunderstanding. So, even if you think they know what you do ask them as see what they say, you could save yourself from a lot of embarrassment.
This article originally appeared last year and has been updated.