IBM-er wins tech's version of Nobel, but few women keep her company

0 Comments | USA TODAY, February, 2007 | by Kevin Maney

Today, IBM's Fran Allen becomes the first woman to win the most prestigious prize in computing, the A.M. Turing Award.

And tomorrow? Well, Thursday is officially Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day. Together, these items add up to a pretty sad statement: Technology companies have failed colossally at making women a bigger part of the industry's amazing expansion.

Allen, now retired from IBM Research, started in computing in 1957 -- a time when tech companies, believe it or not, seemed like wide-open and exciting places for women to build careers. Allen was a math teacher when IBM recruited her along with a boatload of other women.

Yet 50 years later, Allen is the only female Turing winner, and the tech profession has to fan out and make PowerPoint...