Women in Tech Have Been Pulling a 'Second Shift' for Decades

In the 1960s, some women programmers worked from home while fulfilling household chores. Decades later, women are still being asked to work more for less. Despite the upside of working from home, this early instance was predicated on a situation that was not ideal: For many women with young children, if they wanted to program, they needed to be willing to take on extra work on top of their childcare and household work, and also do it for less pay. While both Shirley and Shutt compensated their employees well, they also sometimes had to under-bid in order to get contracts. Sixty years later, women are still being asked to work more for less.