ACM invites you to mark Women's History Month by sharing your stories

During Women's History Month this March, ACM is encouraging computing professionals and students to use the hashtag #SheIsWhyICode to share stories of women in computing who have inspired them at any point in their career or education. The stories might range in topic from one’s earliest introduction to computer science to overcoming a recent professional obstacle, and the subjects could vary from luminaries of the computing field to someone’s high school computer science teacher or current boss.

Shafi Goldwasser

#ACMTuringAward recipient Shafi Goldwasser helped pioneer the field of provable security, which laid the mathematical foundations for modern cryptography. Which women in computing inspire you? Share with #SheIsWhyICode! #WomensHistoryMonth

Barbara Liskov

#ACMTuringAward recipient Barbara Liskov revolutionized programming with groundbreaking research that underpins virtually every modern consumer and business application. Which women in computing inspire you? Share with #SheIsWhyICode.

Fran Allen

Fran Allen, the first woman to receive the #ACMTuringAward, made contributions that fundamentally improved the performance of computer programs, and accelerated the use of high performance computing. Which women in computing inspire you? #SheIsWhyICode #WomensHistoryMonth

Dina Katabi

Syrian-American researcher Dina Katabi helped pioneer the use of wireless signals in applications that can sense humans behind walls, determine their movements and even surmise their emotional states. Which women in computing inspire you? #SheIsWhyICode #WomensHistoryMonth

Grace Hopper

Among her many contributions to computing, Grace Murray Hopper popularized the idea of machine-independent programming languages and high-level programming paradigms. Which women in computing inspire you? Share with #SheIsWhyICode. #WomensHistoryMonth

Daphne Koller

Daphne Koller received the very first ACM Prize in Computing, and established a new knowledge representation paradigm, "relational probabilistic models," as a major research area in AI. Which women in computing inspire you? Share with #SheIsWhyICode. #WomensHistoryMonth

Sylvia Ratnasamy

Sylvia Ratnasamy received the 2014 Grace Murray Hopper Award for her groundbreaking contributions to large-scale distributed and peer-to-peer computing systems. Which women in computing inspire you? Share with #SheIsWhyICode #WomensHistoryMonth

sylvia ratnasamy

Jennifer Rexford

Jennifer Rexford's contributions to advancing network efficiency greatly enhanced the stability and flow of internet transmissions, and made data networks easier to design, understand and manage. Which women in computing inspire you? #SheIsWhyICode #WomensHistoryMonth

Amanda Randles

ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award recipient Amanda Randles developed HARVEY, which helps foster discoveries that will help improve the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of human diseases. Which women in computing inspire you? Share with #SheIsWhyICode. #WomensHistoryMonth

Elisa Bertino

Italian computer scientist and 2019-2020 ACM Athena Lecturer Elisa Bertino is recognized as one of the top database security experts worldwide. Which women in computing inspire you? Share with #SheIsWhyICode. #WomensHistoryMonth

Robin Murphy

2014 ACM Eugene L. Lawler Award recipient Robin Murphy has done pioneering work in humanitarian disaster response through search and rescue robotics. Share the women in computing who inspire you with #SheIsWhyICode. #WomensHistoryMonth

robin murphy

Lydia Kavraki

Greek-American computer scientist and ACM Fellow Lydia Kavraki invented randomized motion-planning algorithms in robotics, and developed robotics-inspired methods for bioinformatics and biomedicine. Which women in computing inspire you? #SheIsWhyICode #WomensHistoryMonth

Vivienne Sze

ACM-W Rising Star Award recipient Vivienne Sze has made groundbreaking contributions that bridge algorithm and hardware design. Which women in computing inspire you? Share with #SheIsWhyICode. #WomensHistoryMonth

Jeannette Wing

Championing the broad, interdisciplinary value of #ComputationalThinking is just one of ACM Distinguished Service Award recipient Jeannette Wing's contributions to computing. Which women in computing inspire you? Share during #WomensHistoryMonth with #SheIsWhyICode.

jeannette wing

Fei-Fei Li

Stanford professor Fei Fei Li builds algorithms that enable computers and robots to see and think. Which women in computing inspire you? Share with #SheIsWhyICode. #WomensHistoryMonth

How can I get involved?

Think about a woman in computing who has inspired you. She could be anyone from a trailblazer like Grace Hopper to a colleague you pushes you forward every day. Once you've thought about what you admire about this individual, share it with the world on your social network of choice. Your posts could be a personalized video, a photo of that person, or a simple statement honoring them. Share you posts with the hashtag #SheIsWhyICode, and tag someone else in your post who you think would like to do the same.

How can my organization get involved?

Spread the word to your membership and communities! Here is a helpful PDF about this campaign that you can share with your network.