In the shadow of World War II, six women—Betty Holberton, Jean Bartik, Kay McNulty, Ruth Teitelbaum, Marlyn Meltzer, and Frances Spence—were quietly making history. Selected in the 1940s to program ENIAC, the world’s first general-purpose electronic computer, they ventured into uncharted territory without guides, manuals, or coding languages—armed only with logic, blueprints, and determination.
They weren’t just inputting instructions—they were inventing them. Every wire, calculation, and punch card marked a leap forward in a field no one had yet defined. Their innovations created the very language of modern computing.
Yet when ENIAC debuted publicly in 1946, these women were missing from the spotlight. The engineers received the applause, not the programmers. Their brilliance stayed hidden—tucked away behind blinking lights and forgotten files.
Decades later, in the 1980s, computer scientist Kathy Kleiman uncovered their overlooked legacy. Her research reshaped history’s margins, restoring these women to their rightful place in the tech timeline.
Their story isn’t just about code—it’s about courage, clarity, and quiet revolution. These six minds didn’t just run ENIAC—they redefined what it means to be pioneers in computing. Their impact lives on in every algorithm, every app, every click.