A Call to Leadership - Transforming Your STEM Career Through Leadership and Innovation - page 10

to Harvard to work on computers for calculating firing ranges for Naval Artil-
lery. It was laborious and, by today's standards, primitive work, but it produced
results. At the end of the war, Grace published a topic on her work. She con-
tinued to work with computers during the post-war years and hoped one day to
write computer programs that would allow laymen to use computers. She was
mocked for her ideas, as the establishment believed that computers were far too
complex for anyone but a scientist to use. In the 1950s, the Navy promoted her
to Lt Commander and she began working on a program that could be used in
a business environment. In 1955 Grace completed her work on a program that
she later helped develop into COBOL. COBOL, which stands for CO mmon
B usiness- O riented L language is a third-generation programing language and
one of the oldest programing languages still in active use today. Its primary
domain is in business, finance, and administrative systems for companies and
governments.
Grace continued working with computers until she reached retirement age
in 1966. Six months later, after realizing their computer development programs
could not continue without her, the Navy called Grace back to duty. Known
among her fellow workers as “Amazing Grace,” she decorated her office with a
clock that ran backwards and a skull and crossbones ensign to remind her staff
to always be unconventional and flexible in their thinking. She retired again in
1986 with the rank of Rear Admiral. At the time of her retirement she was the
oldest actively serving military officer.
The recipient of many honors for her groundbreaking work on computers,
Grace Hopper died in 1992. She was posthumously inducted into the National
Women's Hall of Fame in 1994. In the same year, the Navy announced that a
new ship would be named after her. Admiral Hopper was truly a passionate
leader willing to face challenges and difficulties to make her dreams come true,
and, in doing so, she enlightened the world with technology [16] .
While women are driven by many of the same motivations that drive men,
other factors contribute to the diversity that women bring to the leadership
stage. It is often an emotional trial or an important cause that drives women. For
instance, a woman's drive could stem from losing a friend to breast cancer and
thereby becoming an advocate for the cause, or pursuing a position on a school
board in order to improve her children's educational environment. Sometimes,
a woman keeps the family business alive after the death of a spouse or parent
even though her focus might have been elsewhere under normal circumstances.
Environment: Wangari Maathai
The primary motivating factor in your life may be a strong passion for a cause,
as was the case with Wangari Maathai. Wangari was born in Kenya in 1940. A
good student, she was able to pursue her studies until she obtained her Doctor-
ate in Anatomy at the age of 36, becoming the first woman in that part of Africa
to earn a PhD [17] .