Queens of Code: Inspiring True Stories from NSA’s Computing Women

The stories of America’s unsung computing women, brought out of the shadows and into their rightful place in the history of technology.

The dearth of women in our histories of technology cannot be overstated. In Queens of Code, author and one of the female pioneers of computer science Eileen Buckholtz aims to set the record straight. Much as Hidden Figures revealed the role of women professionals at NASA and Code Girls illustrated the critical accomplishments of the female code breakers of World War II, Queens of Code illuminates the women who innovated in technology, contributed to national security, and expanded career opportunities for generations of women. Buckholtz presents first-hand accounts from 25 of the National Security Agency (NSA)’s computing women, revealing what it was like to work at the super-secret NSA.

The women who worked for NSA had to keep their employment a secret for over 50 years. Now, Buckholtz provides a never-before-seen look into the working lives of the women who contributed significantly to more powerful mainframe and super computers, big data processing, and innovative software. Queens of Code is a beacon and a road map for the women who will usher in the future of computing and technology.

Series Overview: The Labor and Technology series aims to fill a gap in scholarly and public discussions about the digital capacities and infrastructures that are affecting how we work. The series promotes critical analysis of dynamics such as digitization, automation, mobile computing, surveillance, the gig economy, precarity, care work, crowdsourcing, outsourcing, and more. It brings a deep and contextual analysis to accounts of new and unrecognized forms of labor by asking: Who are the workers being left out of the story? How is labor fundamentally connected to systems of inequality based on, for example, race, class, gender, and sexuality? How are technologies of labor rooted in political economies, legal systems, state regulations, and social ideologies—especially beyond the US and Europe, and particularly in the Global South? How are different groups shaping technology from the ground up, with grassroots initiatives? The goal of the series is to provide a space for a nuanced, multidimensional, and research-informed conversation. In doing so, the series attempts to tie together discussions that have been sprinkled across myriad disciplines, creating a cohesive site for analyses of the digitization of work and an anchor for future debates.