President Barack Obama awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to pioneering computer scientist Margaret Hamilton on Nov. 22, 2016. (Image credit: Cheriss May/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Dean Robbins is a journalist and children's author. He contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights .

The pioneering computer scientist Margaret Hamilton , who died on Sept. 30 at age 90, played a key role in putting astronauts on the moon. She was a problem-solver extraordinaire, and it all started in early childhood.

Considering the name "daddy longlegs" unfair to female arachnids, young Margaret decided to call half of them "mommy longlegs." Wondering why the neighborhood baseball players were all boys, she determined to join the team herself.

As she grew up in the 1940s and '50s, Margaret noticed a similar problem with various professions. Why were doctors, judges and scientists almost always men?…