‘The Innovators’ by Walter Isaacson: How Women Shaped Technology

By NICK BILTON OCT. 1, 2014

While spending the summer of 2007 in Aspen, Colo., Walter Isaacson and his wife, Cathy, spent much of their waking moments hounding their daughter to finish — or even start, for all they knew — her compulsory college essay. Finally, after hearing enough from her nagging parents, Betsy Isaacson locked herself in her bedroom until she emerged with a completed two-page essay. “Congratulations, Betsy,” Mr. Isaacson recalls saying as they stood in the living room. “What did you write it about?” “Ada Lovelace,” she replied. This was followed by a long, awkward silence. Mr. Isaacson, who was just beginning work on a biography of Steve Jobs, could not recall who Ms. Lovelace was. “She’s one of the women who has been written out of the history of computing,” his daughter replied…

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