Ada Loveless
Ada Lovelace was a friend of Charles Babbage. In addition to this, she is hailed as the first computer programmer. Although she was primarly taught by tutors, she became very interested in Babbage's work, even if it wasn't widely known at the time. Babbage became a mentor to Lovelace, eventually allowing her to work with hime. Even after having children, she continued her work on programming Babbage's Difference and Analytical Engines, which was not looked upon fondly at the time. One of the first progamming langauges, Ada, was named after her.