<P> The "programmer" and "operator" job titles were not originally considered professions suitable for women . The labor shortage created by World War II was what enabled the entry of women into the field . However, the field was not viewed as prestigious, and bringing in women was viewed as a way to free men up for more skilled labor . For example, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics said in 1942, "It is felt that enough greater return is obtained by freeing the engineers from calculating detail to overcome any increased expenses in the computers' salaries . The engineers admit themselves that the girl computers do the work more rapidly and accurately than they would . This is due in large measure to the feeling among the engineers that their college and industrial experience is being wasted and thwarted by mere repetitive calculation". Thus while women were integral to the programming of the ENIAC their contributions were often minimized and feminized . </P> <P> Following the initial six programmers, an expanded team of a hundred scientists was recruited to continue work on the ENIAC . Among these were several women, including Gloria Ruth Gordon . Adele Goldstine wrote the original technical description of the ENIAC . </P> <P> Although the Ballistic Research Laboratory was the sponsor of ENIAC, one year into this three - year project John von Neumann, a mathematician working on the hydrogen bomb at Los Alamos National Laboratory, became aware of this computer . Los Alamos subsequently became so involved with ENIAC that the first test problem run consisted of computations for the hydrogen bomb, not artillery tables . The input / output for this test was one million cards . </P> <P> Related to ENIAC's role in the hydrogen bomb was its role in the Monte Carlo method becoming popular . Scientists involved in the original nuclear bomb development used massive groups of people doing huge numbers of calculations ("computers" in the terminology of the time) to investigate the distance that neutrons would likely travel through various materials . John von Neumann and Stanislaw Ulam realized the speed of ENIAC would allow these calculations to be done much more quickly . The success of this project showed the value of Monte Carlo methods in science . </P>

Who developed the first all electronic computers by 1940