One married couple was responsible for the foundations of modern code breaking, and the principles that gave the NSA a head start in cryptanalysis. Though the husband, William Friedman, is usually apportioned the lion's share of the credit, his wife Elizebeth Friedman was in every way his equal. During World War II, both worked under total secrecy, and only now are we learning about Elizebeth's critical work uncovering the secrets of Nazi spies—and cracking the codes of the notorious "Doll Lady" suspected of working for the Japanese.
Source: https://www.wired.com/story/world-war-2-codebreakers-elizebeth-smith-friedman/
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 01 2018, @05:53AM (1 child)
It makes one strongly suspect that even if she wasn't her husband's equal, the author would portray her as being such anyway. A culture of celebrating a group of people with an arbitrary genetic trait only serves to undermine all celebration, legitimate or otherwise, of others with that same trait under the suspicion the celebration is in part due to that trait.
If this article was titled "Newly Declassified Codebreaking was Key to Defeating Japan in WWII" then I'd be interested, as it is I suspect she did something worthwhile and it's being blown out of proportion by a reporter who's breathless at the shock that tits don't preclude mathematical ability.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 01 2018, @07:33AM
The notability of womanhood in a story just proves that excellence in that domain is unexpected among women.