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The Wall Falls, A Woman Rises
~A Memoir~
How a U.S. Tech Entrepreneur Broke the Glass Ceiling and Helped Modernize Latvia
“Dagnija Lacis’ memoir is a story of courage, upheaval, and persistence... Watching through her memoir, we see her tenacity and resilience when confronted with obstacles. The way she always finds a path forward is inspirational for us all.”
—Lynn Miller, author of Sweating Bullets, historical fiction
Publication date: March 18, 2025
The Wall Falls, A Woman Rises, a Memoir: How a U.S. Tech Entrepreneur Broke the Glass Ceiling and Helped Modernize Latvia is the compelling story of Dagnija Lacis, the trailblazer who left her beloved homeland of Latvia in 1944 to flee communism, immigrated to Indianapolis in 1950, and went on to become the first woman programmer at Burroughs Corporation, and the first woman line vice president at Burroughs/Unisys. Dagnija broke these glass ceilings in the male-dominated world of mainframe computing when women/colleagues were called girls.
After the Berlin Wall fell, the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of newly freed Latvia asked Dagnija (also known as "Daggie") to bring her extensive knowledge of business and technology back to modernize her home country so that Latvia could do business with the West.
The stories and strategies in The Wall Falls, A Woman Rises will appeal to readers of Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg and anyone interested in women's history, women in business, women in international business, women in IT, women in STEM, and those interested in Latvia, or the modernization of Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Join Dagnija Lacis as she shares her view from the front lines of THREE major world events: the women's movement, women’s arrival in programming and IT management, and one country’s transition from communism to capitalism.
Plus, you’ll read about the challenges and solutions as Dagnija launched one of the first companies with remote employees …several years before the web was available.
“As Dagnija Lacis was introducing the latest Western technology to Latvians, I often collaborated with Andris and Dagnija in Riga during the early 1990s. I was proud of our efforts, which resulted in the Latvian military meeting NATO standards and Latvia becoming a NATO member.”
—Major General E. Gordon Stump, Retired Adjutant General of the Michigan National Guard
