Proving Ground

The Untold Story of the Six Women Who Programmed the World's First Modern Computer

By: Kathy Kleiman

Narrated by: Erin Bennett

Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

Discover a fascinating look into the lives of six historic trailblazers in this World War II-era story of the American women who programmed the world's first modern computer.

After the end of World War II, the race for technological supremacy sped on. Top-secret research into ballistics and computing, begun during the war to aid those on the front lines, continued across the United States as engineers and programmers rushed to complete their confidential assignments. Among them were six pioneering women, tasked with figuring out how to program the world's first general-purpose, programmable, all-electronic computer—better known as the ENIAC—even though there were no instruction codes or programming languages in existence. While most students of computer history are aware of this innovative machine, the great contributions of the women who programmed it were never told—until now.

Over the course of a decade, Kathy Kleiman met with four of the original six ENIAC Programmers and recorded extensive interviews with the women about their work. Proving Ground restores these women to their rightful place as technological revolutionaries. As the tech world continues to struggle with gender imbalance and its far-reaching consequences, the story of the ENIAC Programmers' groundbreaking work is more urgently necessary than ever before, and Proving Ground is the celebration they deserve.

©2022 Kathy Kleiman (P)2022 Grand Central Publishing

Critic reviews

“Everyone told Kathy Kleiman that the women she sought did not exist. Thankfully, she didn’t believe them. In Proving Ground, Kleiman pursues her subjects with the instincts of an investigative journalist, uncovering the stories of six groundbreaking women who battled sexism, complex trajectory equations, and blown vacuum tubes in order to program the world’s first digital computer. With unforgettable, detailed prose, Kleiman blends the history of early computing with the lives of the women who made modern programming possible. Proving Ground is a book so deeply inspiring that it has the power to completely alter how we see the technology field and the role of women within it.”—Nathalia Holt, New York Times bestselling author of Rise of the Rocket Girls

“With this book, Kathy Kleiman restores the ENIAC 6 to their rightful, lauded place in the history of computing. The bond she developed with these women through her years of research and interviews is evident, as each of them come vibrantly and vividly alive in her writing. Their story will serve as inspiration for generations of women in STEM.”—Keith O’Brien, author of Fly Girls

“Kleiman has a novelist’s gift for crafting a page-turning narrative, and the one on offer is both revelatory and inspiring. Fans of Dava Sobel’s The Glass Universe and Margot Lee Shetterly’s Hidden Figures are in for a treat.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

Women. computers, engineering. and WW II

And it is non-fiction. My guess is to few will read the story. Women who are in technology vocations are underpaid versus men and hit the glass ceiling sooner.

important chapter in history of computer science

it is truly disturbing that this book was not published until the year 2022. in a sense this helps to bookmark the dark age of computers science and programming from about 1970 to 2020. along with books such as broadband and a people's history of computing, hopefully we will be able to learn about a history so recent it is still if barely in living memory. even aside from the very serious gender issues, proper historical information about George boole, Alan Turing , Norbert Weiner, Claude Shannon and jonben Neumann ,et al, is shockingly difficult to come across, and that is just the most famous tip of the iceberg. very good that this book exists, please read it, whoever is out there and able to fill in the history please do so. keep writing these books, for heaven's sake.

so interesting

There is so much interesting information in this book. It was fun just to listen and learn all ofthe facts. These women were a marvel.

I never knew...

Thank you so much for telling this story. I have been a IT professional for 35 years and I never knew the contribution these brilliant women played in the fledgeling stage of electronic/digital computing. I look forward to watch your documentary on this topic.

A great book and a great performance. So good, I’m going to listen again .

It’s such a shame so many talented women get treated like they do. They happily served their country under hard circumstances, but they found joy in their work and formed lifelong friends. This was a weekly special from Audiobooks.com. So glad I was lucky enough to have found it. It was well written and well performed, highly recommended.

Interesting history

I always like learning more about the roles women have played in history, often behind the scenes or unacknowledged, & this is one of those stories of women computer programmers.

great story

important story, well told by author, loved afternotes. however reader sometimes got in the way

Fascinating!

One of my thoughts during my history classes was “Where are the women? What did they do?” This book answers that question regarding the importance of women in the beginning of computing. The story of the “Six” is fascinating, but also appalling how they were almost forgotten. Their place in history should be remembered. This book tells their stories in a memorable way.

An Important Story

I enjoyed the book and will encourage my daughters to read it, especially my daughter entering computer science.

Outstanding book

This is one of the best books I've read in a long time. Highly recommended.