title: "Beards, Sandals, and Other Signs of Rugged Individualism": Masculine Culture within the Computing Professions.
abstract: Over the course of the 1960s and 1970s, male computer experts were able to successfully transform the "routine and mechanical" (and therefore feminized) activity of computer programming into a highly valued, well-paying, and professionally respectable discipline. They did so by constructing for themselves a distinctively masculine identity in which individual artistic genius, personal eccentricity, anti-authoritarian behavior, and a characteristic "dislike of activities involving human interaction" were mobilized as sources of personal and professional authority. This article explores the history of masculine culture and practices in computer programming, with a particular focus on the role of university computer centers as key sites of cultural formation and dissemination.
authors.forename: Nathan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ensmenger
mesh_terms: D003201:Computers / Q000266:history* / Q000639:trends; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008297:Male; D057228:Masculinity; D008571:Men / Q000523:psychology*