Ann Caracristi, Who Cracked Codes, and the Glass Ceiling At NSA, Dies At 94 (washingtonpost.com) 96
An anonymous reader writes with this story at The Washington Post about the life and death of Ann Caracristi. From the article: "Ann Caracristi, who became one of the highest ranking and most honored women at the code breaking National Security Agency after a career extending from World War II through much of the Cold War, died Jan. 10 at her home in Washington. She was 94. ... Ms. Caracristi formally retired from her intelligence career in 1982, after becoming the sixth deputy director of the NSA . . . She was the first woman to serve as deputy director. One of her strengths was reconstructing enemy code books, said Liza Mundy, a former Washington Post staff writer who is working on a book about U.S. female code breakers during the war. Admired for her early accomplishments as a young woman in wartime Washington, Ms. Caracristi was credited in her later career with providing leadership for new generations of code breakers and for her efforts to bring computers and technology to bear on the work. ... One of her jobs at the NSA was as chief from 1959 to 1980 of branches devoted to research and operations. Her honors there included the Defense Department's Distinguished Civilian Service Award and the National Security Medal, among other top federal honors. After retiring, she began serving on a variety of prominent scientific, defense and intelligence advisory boards and committees."
Looks like the NSA is trying to save face (Score:5, Insightful)
Dear NSA,
We will always hate you, no matter how many articles you write about women, Snowden, or "saving the world ". Fuck you.
Sincerely, We The People
Re: Looks like the NSA is trying to save face (Score:4, Insightful)
Dear "Native Americans",
Might makes right.
And no, you weren't all living peacefully together, singing kum-bay-yah, before the white man came. You were killing each other before deciding to oppose or join sides with the next strongest tribe in town... who happened to come on ships.
Now enjoy your casinos and stfu.
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Dear All,
Hahaha, U mad bro?
Signed, The NSA
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Unlike you, I'm assuming, I actually *am* a Native. I am a tribal member, Micmac if you must know, and am reasonably active in keeping up with the politics even though I do not participate.
That said, there are no white people alive today who were responsible. Some of us got off pretty light, compared to other colonizations but that's not really saying much. I don't normally discuss much of my heritage here (though I've brought it up in the past) because of stupid people - like those who can't spell pristine
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There's a real problem here. For much of the Cold War, the NSA did its job, and it did it well: spying on the actual enemies of the US while helping make sure that the communications of the US and its allies were secure. They helped make the world safe for democracy. Unfortunately, the work gets very little publicity
It got lots of good will prior to the 80s, the NSA was the worst kept secret ever in that they existed and what they did.
and it is also very hard to forgive them for things they've done since 9/11. Essentially,they've blown most of their hard-earned good will. It will probably take decades before it is reestablished.
It hasn't been since just 9/11. The easiest way to tell would be to see when they shunted into AT&Ts main telecom hubs.
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Literally internet terrorist misogyny. We need the NSA to protect women from MRAs like you.
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Every so often, I browse Slashdot comments at 0, just so I can see what the AC's are going on about.
It's sort of like looking under the refrigerator. Momentary disgust then getting up and forgetting I ever saw that. Life is too short.
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wow she had a cunt (Score:1, Interesting)
far more important than any of her achievements: SHE HAD A CUNT AND BROKE THRU THE GLASS CEILING!!!
Fuck yeah, she will be the popstar of all the little girls! girls will want to be like her! They are so weak minded, you must tell girls what to want to be! Clinton as next woman president!!
When brains work for the wrong boss ... (Score:4, Interesting)
Ms. Caracristi was a real brainer
I had opportunity of meeting her decades ago and came away very impressed
But ... like so many other brains, she worked for the wrong boss
No, it is not a sin to break codes - the only thing is that NSA has more interests in playing the role of a big brother sidekick than actually protecting our country
RIP, Ms. Caracristi !
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Glass ceiling is a term that only originates (Score:5, Insightful)
Glass ceiling is a term that only originates from the late 1970s.
I suppose, like the supposed pay gap myth, it had more to do with women's lifestyle choices and propensity to stick their nose to the grind wheel rather than actual barriers of entry.
Madam Curie and Florence Nightingale showed women leaders can make it far earlier than that. I guess what it's all about then, is not to try to get equality, but like how it's been demonstrated over and over again that not enough women simply enroll in CS when free too (or even when incentivized).... to cheerlead them onto a certain path whether they really want to or not.
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His opinion of her went down when she had kids. That is the glass ceiling.
I thought it was well known that having a family, generally, means making sacrifices on the career side - as a father or a mother. Not that I like that reality - but that's currently just the way it is.
So all you've shown is that people with families do sometimes get discriminated against in the workplace. Or was there something else that indicated that your sister actually faced discrimination because her gender?
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So all you've shown is that people with families do sometimes get discriminated against in the workplace. Or was there something else that indicated that your sister actually faced discrimination because her gender?
I don't know the whole story here, but I've seen the "double standard" at work. I've seen fathers who occasionally have to take a half-day off with a sick kid praised by coworkers as an "involved dad." I've seen mothers with the exact same behavior complained about as an "unfocused parent" who created some minor inconvenience for others but needs to "pay more attention to her work."
Is this less common than it was a couple decades ago? I'm sure. But it's there. I don't have enough information about GP
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So any evidence is rejected by you, even statistics? The obvious thing to do is just look around at who gets promoted and their qualifications. There are lots of male managers which is to be expected given the ratio of men to women. However those managers cover the whole range, from geniuses to barely functional idiots with the majority being boringly average. However for women managers they're almost all above average. Hardly anyone promotes the slightly below average woman to manager even though you
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It's the stereotype. Men men are expected to work, women are expected to be domestic. The ideas from the 50s with Father Knows Best and Leave It To Beaver. Mom stays home, dad goes to work except on the weekend when he goes golfing. The times are changing for sure but the biases remain. Especially in some countries it's like going back in a time machine, Japan for instance seriously expects women to stop working once they become mothers and men don't dare ask for a day off in the middle of the week for
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Naw, if you check out middle and upper management men, they almost all have kids. A few exceptions here and there but overwhelmingly the people who get ahead in business are family men. If it's not a hindrance for a man then it shouldn't be a hindrance for a woman.
I've never seen family people get discriminated against more than single people. However I *have* seen discrimination the other way. The person without a family gets assigned to work over the weekend ("it wouldn't be fair to Jack, he's got kid
Re:Glass ceiling is a term that only originates (Score:5, Insightful)
... since she uses 80% or more of her vacation time that she won't be able to handle the job.
In normal societies, using your vacation is more or less an OBLIGATION.
I'd guess that in Europe, even the intelligence agencies ensure that their employees do take out their vacation.
It is also used as a measure against internal fraud. It is difficult to break rules and hide the consequences if you MUST be away from work (and hand over your duties) every year.
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American shrinks down its teams so much in the name of productivity that there's no wiggle room for someone to take off too much time. There's no redundancy built in. If you take off a week then when you come back you now are a week behind and have to work extra hard.
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Except the glass ceiling exists. My sister is dealing with it now. She was told for the last five years a promotion is hers upon retirement of a guy. She gets above average pay raises and bonuses, excellent reviews.
This year she was told she might get the promotion in two years when he retires. That since she uses 80% or more of her vacation time that she won't be able to handle the job. Exact wording.
Must be sexism its the only possible explanation.
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It's not the only possible explanation, of course, but if you really want to take the red pill, you'll see that sexism is alive and well.*
Try to read what GP actually wrote. There is clearly a double-standard going on here with a good probability.
I mean, the other place I'd look is nepotism. Either way, it's not looking fair, and I'd suggest GP's sister start looking for another job. Sometimes jumping ship for greener pastures is the only way towards a promotion.
* Amazon qualification: when you take the
Re:Glass ceiling is a term that only originates (Score:5, Insightful)
"She was told for the last five years a promotion is hers upon retirement of a guy."
Not that I'm necessarily willing to discount sexism here, since I don't know who your sister works for, but this is often how it works whether you're male or female.
Unless your sister is stellar and could create her own position to which she could be promoted, most companies don't want more managers just for the sake of having them because of practical considerations rather than spend money on salary because it looks good on paper that they hired a woman to be a manager.
"His opinion of her went down when she had kids. That is the glass ceiling."
Went down, or found her to be less productive overall because she had family obligations to meet?
I find it strange that business is where we draw the line at distracted productivity.
Let's say I was a competitive weightlifter, and decided to take a year off to have a kid. And when I came back a year later, I couldn't hit the bench for five hours a day like I used to because I was fulfilling the necessary task of taking care of said kid.
Do you think if I showed up at a competition and took 12th place, the judges would feel it necessary to give me a handicap because having a kid kept me from grinding the way other competitors without kids do, and fast-track me into the top 5?
Again, I don't know your sister's situation. But these "all-too-familiar" stories that squarely fit that confirmation bias hole are just too vague for me to nod my head and say "yep, that's sexism."
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Unless your sister is stellar and could create her own position to which she could be promoted, most companies don't want more managers just for the sake of having them
I think you need to re-read GP's post again. He was NOT saying, "My sister was forced to wait until this guy retired, and that's unfair."
He WAS saying: "My sister was told for the past FIVE years that she was in line for this guy's job when he retires, but now that his retirement is getting closer, she's been told maybe she will NOT get it because she takes too much vacation time and had kids."
Let's say I was a competitive weightlifter, and decided to take a year off to have a kid. And when I came back a year later, I couldn't hit the bench for five hours a day like I used to because I was fulfilling the necessary task of taking care of said kid.
I think competitive weightlifting is a GREAT comparison to how things should work in the real world. Why? Be
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Maybe you should read the GP's post again.
The story is so vague, so missing in detail, that there are SO many variables unaccounted for. And it seems that the GP IS saying that his sister's job IS being unfair: she hasn't been promoted because the only reason she's not being promoted is because she has to wait for someone else to vacate a job she CAN be promoted to. And as I said before: so what? I'm sure a number of men on this board (Government employees especially) have been in the same Shakespearian
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This is actually getting beyond ridiculous...we are all posting to the summary of a story about a woman who reached very high heights in her career (I don't want to say 'pinnacle' because only SHE can know how high she wanted to go) and as such is effectively 'anecdotal evidence' that the 'glass ceiling did NOT in fact exist' but we are all expected to take this GP's anecdotal evidence about his sister as better evidence that it DOES exist...say what?
Just more evidence that today 'black is white, white is b
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Unless your sister is stellar and could create her own position to which she could be promoted, most companies don't want more managers just for the sake of having them
However this does not seem to apply to men. You can have an average guy, not the best, not pulling his full weight, and he gets promoted. I see companies with redundant managers whose teams have been dissolved but they don't fire the manager because they know they'll need one in the future (it's bizarre but I've seen it at more than one company). How come men can be average and get promoted but women have to be stellar in order to be promoted?
Companies do not tend to promote only the best and brightest.
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On thinking about it a little (and being in the same sort of position myself), I'm kind of wondering why your sister isn't doing what I'm doing. Which is: looking for a better job instead of sitting around waiting for the prize to land in her lap?
The guy I work for, if asked, would probably tell you he'd love it if I worked for him forever, but he's smart enough to be realistic about the prospect. He knows that if I were offered a better position tomorrow, he'd hate to have to write a letter of recommenda
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That's not sexism, your sister is just working for a bunch of dicks. Tell her to get a new job. Waiting for an opening in a company is a shitty way of getting a promotion these days. That's why you switch jobs. If they really want her to stay on, they'll kick this guy upstairs to some sort of oversight position and let your sister the do the job. If they believe she's replaceable, then there is no guarantee their promises to her will stick. They'll just hire some other old man to take the position.
Vac
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Madam Curie and Florence Nightingale made a small fraction of the income that men were making.
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Hidden sexism originates from the same era where open sexism became unfashionable. Imagine that. But of course you did, which is why you posted AC.
A true patriot, when that used to mean something (Score:2, Troll)
When the NSA spied on our enemies, not on us.
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William F. Friedman really wanted to work with the UK in early 1940 but was blocked by the then powerful US Navy that was duplicating US decoding efforts and did not want to share with the US army.
William Friedman was then focused on diplomatic encryption systems eg Japan.
By 1946 the post war agreements over sharing and 5 eye got a lot of attention, a new way to collect all due to new sites l
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