Too important to be left to men

Women have been at the forefront of computer science and electronic engineering from the outset. Does that surprise you? It shouldn't but if it does it's probably due in great part to the power of stereotypes. At the moment too many girls have been believing the stereotypes, which just leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy. Fortunately many ignore them and are continuing to be as successful as the women of history.

Here we celebrate some of the great women of the past, highlight the work of current top researchers and also profile some students who are set to continue the trend. Women may not always shout about their achievements, but boy do they do it well!

After all as leading computer scientist Karen Spärk-Jones said: "Computing's too important to be left to men".