| Elsie Shutt | |
| Birth Name: | Elsie Goedeke |
| Birth Place: | New York City |
| Education: | Goucher College (B.A.) |
| Known For: | “The excitement of designing a system: . . . finding out what the problem is; analyzing it; designing something that will make it work; doing it; seeing it work, and having a client who is happy with it. That’s very satisfying.” - Elsie Shutt, 2001 |
Elsie Shutt (née Goedeke, born 1928) is an American technology entrepreneur. She founded Computations Incorporated (CompInc.) in 1958. She was among the first women to establish a software business in the United States.[1] [2] [3]
Elsie Shutt was born in New York City and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Her father died when she was four years old. As a result, she was predominantly raised by her mother and her maternal grandfather with whom she and her mother lived with in Baltimore. She attended Eastern High School in Baltimore and graduated at the age of 16. Shutt graduated from Goucher College as a math major with a minor in chemistry at the age of 20. After receiving a Pepsi-Cola graduate fellowship for graduate school she covered full tuition and some living expenses, Shutt continued her math studies at Radcliffe College.
Shutt learned to program on the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) under Dick Clippinger during a summer job at the U.S. Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.[4] In 1953, Shutt was hired at Raytheon (an aerospace and defense manufacturing company), where she worked on software for the Raycom computer.[5] By 1957, Shutt was working as a freelance programmer from her home, and in 1958 she founded her company Computations Incorporated
Elsie Shutt's founding of Computations Incorporated was a development for gender equality in computer science–a historically male-dominated field. According to Janet Abbate, author of Recoding Gender: Women's Changing Participation in Computing, Shutt was among the early pioneers who showed that women could excel in programming and systems analysis while also managing family responsibilities.
CompInc became renowned for its high-quality software solutions, which were provided to major clients such as Raytheon and the U.S. Air Force.[6] [7] [8] Shutt led the company for more than 45 years. Preferentially hiring women with young children, Shutt worked to increase women's chances of obtaining programming employment.[9] The company also offered additional training programs to low-experience employees.
The company utilized systems analysis and design along with programming help for primary clients. Computations, Inc. also emphasized “desk-checking” between employees, manually reviewing each other's code. At its peak, her company entered into contracts with Minneapolis-Honeywell, Raytheon, St. Regis Paper Co., Harvard University, The University of Rochester, and the United States Air Force.[10]