Today is Ada Lovelace Day and like 2000 other bloggers across the globe, I’ve pledged to write a post on a woman in technology and/or science. Research has shown that women need female role models and given the disparity between genders in science and technology, at first it can seem like potential candidates are few and far between. On Ada Lovelace Day we hope to highlight numerous women in these fields, both to celebrate their achievements and to encourage others.

While last year many blogs covered technical superstars, this year I’d like to write about someone a little closer to home: my mum, Karin McKendrick. As well as being an insane long distance runner, she’s also a programmer and systems analyst; suffice to say I wouldn’t be where I am today without her influence.

Perhaps surprisingly, my mum originally studied Classics at university. I don’t know when she first started programming (a number of older computers and gaming systems still lurk around our house), but she returned to work after the birth of my brother and I in time to work on Millennium Bug related problems. During her break from employment (not that I think you could class raising children as “taking a break”) she completed Open University degrees in mechatronics and product design. I didn’t see much significance in basing our holidays conveniently at summer school locations as a child, but as a student myself now I really admire and appreciate the commitment that completing self-study courses must involve.

In high school, I guess a lot of the need to encourage women in technical fields confused me (one of the most shocking times was when a particularly intelligent friend suddenly decided she was terrible at maths overnight), because I was never given any reason why my gender should affect my abilities or aims. Now, I feel hugely fortunate to be where I am.

Hope that wasn’t too cheesy!