Marie Hicks

Marie Hicks is a historian of technology, gender, and computing who specializes in the study of labor, power, and social inequalities in digital history. Their most prominent work is the book "Programmed Inequality: How Britain Discarded Women Technologists and Lost Its Edge in Computing" (MIT Press, 2017), which examines how gender discrimination in the British computing industry led to the decline of British technological dominance. Hicks serves as a professor of history at the Illinois Institute of Technology and has held fellowships at multiple institutions including the National Science Foundation and the IEEE History Center. Their research focuses on how gender, race, and sexuality intersect with the history of computing and technology. Hicks's work has appeared in numerous academic publications and media outlets including IEEE Annals of Computing, Information & Culture, and The Guardian. Their second book, "Resisting the New: Technology, Gender, and Cold War America" explores resistance to new technologies in the workplace during the Cold War era. The scholar's research has influenced discussions about discrimination in technology and helped shape understanding of how social biases affect technological development. Hicks frequently speaks on topics related to gender discrimination in tech, the history of computing, and technological inequalities.

Readers praise Hicks's thorough research and documentation in "Programmed Inequality," noting how the book reveals previously unexplored connections between gender discrimination and Britain's computing decline. Multiple reviews highlight the book's accessibility despite its academic subject matter. Readers appreciate: - Clear presentation of complex historical data - Connection of past discrimination to current tech industry issues - Extensive use of primary sources and archives - Balance of technical and social history Common criticisms: - Dense academic writing style in some sections - Repetitive points in later chapters - Limited scope focusing mainly on Britain Ratings: Goodreads: 4.3/5 (200+ ratings) Amazon: 4.4/5 (50+ ratings) One reader on Goodreads writes: "Documents how systematic devaluation of women's labor crippled an entire nation's computing capability." Another notes: "Important history that explains current tech industry problems, though sometimes gets bogged down in details." "Resisting the New" has fewer reviews but maintains similar ratings, with readers noting its relevance to contemporary workplace technology issues.

Programmed Inequality: How Britain Discarded Women Technologists and Lost Its Edge in Computing A historical examination of how the British computing industry systematically pushed women out of computing roles between the 1940s and 1970s, documenting the transition from women-led early computing to male-dominated tech culture.

Digital Dreams Deferred An analysis of transgender peoples' experiences in the tech industry, tracing historical patterns of exclusion and marginalization from the early days of computing through the present.

Your Computer Is on Fire A collection of essays co-edited with Thomas S. Mullaney, Benjamin Peters, and Mar Hicks, examining how computing technologies reproduce and amplify existing social inequalities and biases.

Sexism Sells: How Gender Inequality Made Britain's Computing Industry A focused study of how gendered labor practices and discrimination in British computing affected both individual careers and national technological development during the post-WWII period.

Janet Abbate writes about gender and computing history, with works like "Recoding Gender" exploring women's roles in early programming. She focuses on how labor and social dynamics shaped the development of computing as a male-dominated field.

Mar Hicks examines technology policy and labor history in Britain, particularly focusing on computerization and gender discrimination. Their work "Computing Nation" investigates how national technological initiatives intersected with social power structures.

Jennifer Light researches the hidden history of women in early computing and defense technology. Her book "When Computers Were Women" documents the female mathematicians and technicians who operated early computing machines during World War II.

Nathan Ensmenger writes about the social and labor history of computing, examining how programming became masculinized. His research covers the transition of computing work from a clerical occupation to a professional engineering discipline.

Paul Edwards studies the history of information systems and their role in shaping global politics and scientific knowledge. His work "The Closed World" examines how Cold War military priorities influenced computer development and the emergence of digital culture.