Quiz: Do you know your female tech leaders?

Women were key to codebreaking work at Bletchley Park during the second world war, but what percentage of workers there were women? Photograph: Bletchley Park Trust/SSPL via Getty Images

1. Which tech leader was previously an aerobics instructor, and held a job at the US Department of the Treasury during the Clinton administration?

   1. IBM CEO Virginia Rometty

   2. YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki

   3. HP CEO Meg Whitman

   4. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg

2. The British Victorian-era mathematician Ada Lovelace is widely considered the founder of computing science and the world’s first computer programmer. She worked with mathematician Charles Babbage on his calculating machines, who called her:

   1. The "enchantress of numbers"

   2. The "sorceress of figures"

   3. The "mistress of maths" 

   4. The "conjurer of calculations"

3. Who played a part in uncovering one of the largest global cyber espionage campaigns, Cloud Hopper, last year?

   1. Michelle Obama

   2. Naomi Campbell

   3. Mary Lou Jepson

   4. Alexandra Phillips

4. According to PwC's research, what percentage of leadership positions in the UK technology sector are held by women?

   1. 5%

   2. 10%

   3. 20%

   4. 50%

5. Which woman uses her skills as Britain’s first female fighter pilot in the RAF to encourage more women into tech?

   1. Captain Megan Couto

   2. Labour MP Angela Eagle

   3. PwC director Jo Salter

   4. Pilot Edith Cook

6. What percentage of workers at Bletchley Park, where British codebreakers worked during the second world war, were women?

   1. 25%

   2. 40%

   3. 60%

   4. 75%

7. Known as the “mother of Cobol”, Grace Murray Hopper led the charge in the development of this new language for data processors for what reason?

   1. To write more precise commands

   2. To reduce errors

   3. To make programming more accessible

   4. To make programming faster

8. What were the three female African-American mathematicians at Nasa who are celebrated in the 2016 film Hidden Figures known as within the space agency?

   1. “Computers in skirts”

   2. “Calculators in lipstick”

   3. “Abacuses in heels”

   4. “Experts in their field”

9. Which supermodel is currently spearheading a campaign to get girls to learn coding?

   1. Cara Delevingne

   2. Karlie Kloss

   3. Gisele Bundchen

   4. Christy Turlington

10. Whose company, with projects including programming Concorde’s black box flight recorder, only numbered three male programmers among a staff of 300 until 1975?

    1. Steve Jobs

    2. Steve Shirley

    3. Steve Wozniak

    4. Steve Ballmer

Solutions

1:D - Sandberg has had a colourful work history, starting as an aerobics instructor in the 1980s. She later became chief of staff for the US Department of the Treasury and vice-president of online sales and operations at Google. Now, she's telling women across the globe to “lean in” to achieve their ambitions. , 2:A - According to the Science Museum, Lovelace was ahead of modern computing by 100 years, because she understood the ability of calculating machines to “manipulate symbols rather than just numbers”., 3:D - Alexandra Phillips is a cyber security senior associate at PwC. Her career in cyber security began at the Department of Defence in Australia, where she discovered that cyber-attacks had become part of standard warfare. , 4:A - While some organisations across the industry are actively seeking to engage women, many are not. And there is still a long way to go., 5:C - Jo Salter is a testament to what women can achieve in a male-dominated workplace. In control of £25m of flying metal, she flew from both Turkey and Saudi Arabia in protection of the “no-fly zone” over Iraq. She’s equally passionate about her role at PwC, leading those who love tech to take their skills further. , 6:D - Although the high-level jobs were dominated by men, in fact most of the work at Bletchley Park was performed by women. It is estimated that their codebreaking efforts shortened the war by around two years., 7:C - When Hopper recommended transitioning to an English-based programming language rather than one that relied on symbols in the early 1950s, she was informed that “computers didn’t understand English”. However, her efforts to make programming more accessible to non-mathematicians paid off, and Cobol (short for “common business-oriented language”) is still in use today. She also became a US rear admiral., 8:A - Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan are remembered now for their instrumental roles on the Redstone, Mercury and Apollo space programmes for Nasa in the 1960s and 70s., 9:B - Kloss launched Kode With Klossy in 2015, saying: “Women are essential in forging digital progress and knowing how to code is the key to exploring and creating the newest frontier.” The programme includes free training for 13-18 year old girls and helping women get into careers in coding., 10:B - Dame Stephanie Shirley, known professionally as Steve Shirley, founded Freelance Programmers in 1962. She hired almost exclusively women until the Sex Discrimination Act came into force in 1975. Her company has since become part of the Sopra Steria Group.

Scores

1. 8 and above.

   Well done

2. 0 and above.

   Well done

3. 4 and above.

   Well done

Find out how PwC is encouraging women into tech with The Tech She Can Charter