Janet Wixson

Wixson tried to raise two small children and get a master's in computer science simultaneously. Fatigued and overburdened, she left graduate school when her advisor made a pass at her. She did not abandon her career, however, and was promoted despite the protests of her male colleagues, one of whom insisted that it was against God's will for him to work for a woman.

"What I want to see changed is the mind-set. See, there's just that little edge there, where women initially in the technical field are assumed to be incompetent until proven competent. Whereas our male colleagues are assumed to be competent until proven incompetent. It sounds like a little thing but oh that little thing creates such an edge."