Oral history interview with Barbara Jani

Abstract

Barbara Jani graduated in 1967 from Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia (where she studied with fellow interviewee Kathy Detrano) with a math degree. Her first exposure to computing was at Burroughs Corporation’s Great Valley Labs in the Philadelphia area, working on government funded research using the JOVIAL programming language and a reservation system for TWA. For experience with IBM computers, she moved to Washington, DC, and worked for a small company doing government work and then a larger company, Planning Research Corporation, doing military work; and then Boeing Corporation helping run a computing services center. At American Airlines — initially in Tulsa, OK, and later in Dallas, TX — she worked as a project leader on computing systems for personnel and retirement, scheduling, reservations and ticketing. At SABRE (American’s computer division) she managed InterAAct, an early company-wide networking scheme; a test center; and company-wide computer security. She discusses changing prospects for women supervisors at American Airlines. She retired from American in 2000.

This material is based on work funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation award B2014-07 “Tripling Women’s Participation in Computing (1965-1985).”