  The use of computers and the role of women in radio astronomy and X-ray
crystallography research at the Cavendish Laboratory between 1949 and 1975 have
been investigated. We recorded examples of when computers were used, what they
were used for and who used them from hundreds of papers published during these
years. The use of the EDSAC, EDSAC 2 and TITAN computers was found to increase
considerably over this time-scale and they were used for a diverse range of
applications. The majority of references to computer operators and programmers
referred to women, 57% for astronomy and 62% for crystallography, in contrast
to a very small proportion, 4% and 13% respectively, of female authors of
papers.
