Mar Hicks

Mar Hicks is a historian of technology, gender and modern Europe, notable for their work on the history of women in computing. Hicks is a professor at the University of Virginia’s School of Data Science. Hicks wrote the 2017 book, Programmed Inequality: How Britain Discarded Women Technologists and Lost Its Edge in Computing.[1]

Mar Hicks
Hicks in 2017
AwardsStansky Prize (2018), Hacker Prize (2018), PROSE Award (2018), Baxter Prize (2019)
Academic background
EducationHarvard University
Duke University
Academic work
InstitutionsNorth Carolina State University
Duke University
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Illinois Institute of Technology
University of Virginia

Early life and education

Hicks received a B.A. in Modern European History from Harvard University with their thesis The Price of Excellence: Coresidence and Women's Integration at Oxford and Harvard Universities, 1964-1977.[2] They studied history at University of Oxford for a year as a visiting student. After receiving a M.A. from the Department of History at Duke University, Hicks earned a Ph.D., also from the Department of History at Duke University.

Career

Prior to earning a Ph.D., Hicks worked at Harvard University as a UNIX system administrator. Hicks has said the position informed their later work on history of technology.

Hicks is currently an associate professor with tenure at the University of Virginia, in the School of Data Science. Hicks was previously a visiting assistant professor at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina, a visiting assistant professor at Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina, an associate professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, and an assistant professor of history of technology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison until the closure of that university’s history of science department.

Hicks's work focuses on issues of inequality in high tech, particularly gender discrimination in the computing industry.[3] Their book "Programmed Inequality: How Britain Discarded Women Technologists and Lost Its Edge In Computing"[4] reveals a switch in the 1960s and 1970s, where as computing roles became more powerful, women who dominated computer programming roles were systematically replaced with men.[5][6][7][8][9]

Hicks is known for drawing from this history when writing about contemporary gender issues in the computing industry.[10][11][12][13][14] Hicks has also written about the early history of computer dating in the mainframe era, showing that women were at the forefront of creating computer dating businesses, contrary to what was previously thought.[15][16]

Hicks is an Associate Editor of the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing.

Hicks is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns.

Selected membership

Selected awards

Selected works and publications

Works
  • Hicks, Mar (2017). Programmed Inequality: How Britain Discarded Women Technologists and Lost Its Edge in Computing. Boston: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-53518-2. OCLC 1164502643.
  • Mullaney, Thomas S.; Peters, Benjamin; Hicks, Mar; Philip., Kavita, eds. (2021). Your Computer Is on Fire. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-53973-9. OCLC 1226612091.

Selected publications

References
  1. Lenton, Dominic (13 February 2018). "Book review: 'Programmed Inequality' by Marie Hicks". Engineering and Technology (E&T).
  2. Hicks, Mar (2000). The Price of Excellence: Coresidence and Women's Integration at Oxford and Harvard Universities, 1964-1977 (A.B., Honors in History). Harvard University. OCLC 77067322.
  3. "The Numbers of Women in Tech Rise and Fall, But Sexual Harassment is Ever Present". IEEE Spectrum: Technology, Engineering, and Science News. 8 December 2017. Retrieved 2017-12-18.
  4. Hicks, Mar (2017). Programmed Inequality: How Britain Discarded Women Technologists and Lost Its Edge in Computing. Boston: MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-53518-2. OCLC 1164502643.
  5. Brewer, Kirstie (2017-08-10). "How the tech industry wrote women out of history". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-12-18.
  6. "Women in Tech and the History Behind That Controversial Google Diversity Memo". Time. Retrieved 2017-12-18.
  7. "Why Women Programmers Were the Foundation of the Computing Age, and Where They Went". Chicago magazine. Retrieved 2017-12-18.
  8. "Book review: Britain's code-breaking women overlooked". The National. Retrieved 2017-12-18.
  9. "Programmed Inequality: How Britain Discarded Women Technologists and Lost Its Edge in Computing, by Marie Hicks". Times Higher Education (THE). 2017-04-06. Retrieved 2017-12-18.
  10. Hicks, Marie (2017-08-09). "Opinion | Memo to the Google memo writer: Women were foundational to the field of computing". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2017-12-18.
  11. Hicks, Marie. "What the Google gender 'manifesto' really says about Silicon Valley". The Conversation. Retrieved 2017-12-18.
  12. Hicks, Marie (2017-02-13). "Hidden Figures is a groundbreaking book. But the film? Not so much". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-12-18.
  13. "Women Were in Fact Pioneers in Computing Work". FAIR. 2017-09-05. Retrieved 2017-12-18.
  14. Posner, Miriam (2017-03-14). "We can teach women to code, but that just creates another problem". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-12-18.
  15. "The Mother of All Swipes". Logic Magazine. 2017-09-18. Retrieved 2018-01-02.
  16. "Computer Love: Replicating Social Order Through Early Computer Dating Systems - Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology". Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology. 2016-10-31. Retrieved 2018-01-02.
  17. List of award winners https://www.computer.org/publications/best-paper-award-winners
  18. "Herbert Baxter Adams Prize Recipients". American Historical Association. 2019.
  19. Society for the History of Technology, Hacker Award Winners https://www.historyoftechnology.org/about-us/awards-prizes-and-grants/the-sally-hacker-prize/
  20. North American Conference on British Studies http://www.nacbs.org/
  21. Business Archives Council https://businessarchivescouncil.org.uk/activitiesobjectives/wadsworthprize/pastwinners
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