Long before computer programming became a modern profession, six women stood beside a massive machine and worked out how to make it perform complex calculations.
They were the original programmers of ENIAC, the pioneering electronic computer developed at the University of Pennsylvania for the U.S. Army.
On October 2, 1955, ENIAC was switched off for the last time after years of operation. Its legacy, however, continued to shape the history of computing.
The Women Behind ENIAC
The six women were Kathleen McNulty Mauchly Antonelli, Jean Jennings Bartik, Betty Snyder Holberton, Marlyn Wescoff Meltzer, Frances Bilas Spence, and Ruth Lichterman Teitelbaum.
They joined the project during World War II, when the U.S. Army needed faster ways to calculate artillery firing tables.
Before working with ENIAC, many women performed mathematical calculations by hand using mechanical calculators. The Army recruited them as “computers,” a job title that then referred to people rather than machines.
When the women began working with ENIAC, they faced a machine unlike anything they had used before.
Programming a Machine With Cables and Switches
ENIAC did not store programs in the way modern computers do.
Instead, programmers had to configure the machine physically. They connected cables, adjusted switches and set controls for each new calculation.
The six women learned how the machine worked and developed methods to operate it efficiently. The Smithsonian says their techniques became fundamental to computer programming.
The task required a detailed understanding of ENIAC’s hardware. The machine occupied a huge space and contained thousands of components.
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History records that ENIAC filled a room measuring about 30 by 50 feet and weighed around 30 tons. It used approximately 18,000 vacuum tubes.
Six Programmers Left Out of Early Computer History
The women played an important role in ENIAC’s operation, but their work received little public recognition for many years.
University of Pennsylvania historians note that much of the early credit went to the machine’s male engineers. The contributions of the six programmers later became better known through historical research and oral histories.
Jean Jennings Bartik later worked with ENIAC engineers J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly on subsequent computer projects.
Betty Snyder Holberton also became an important figure in early programming and helped develop ideas that influenced later software work.
The six women are now widely recognized as pioneers of computer programming. The Computer History Museum describes Jean Bartik as one of the first computer programmers in the world.
ENIAC’s Legacy
ENIAC was built at the University of Pennsylvania’s Moore School between 1943 and 1946. The U.S. Army funded the project to help calculate artillery ballistics.
The machine could perform calculations far faster than existing devices of its time. It helped demonstrate that large-scale electronic computing was possible and useful.
ENIAC was switched off on October 2, 1955. By then, the computer industry was already moving toward new generations of machines.
Yet the work of the six women remained part of the foundation of modern computing.
Their story also highlights a lesser-known chapter in technology history: some of the earliest people to program electronic computers were women whose mathematical and technical work initially received little attention.
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