Dame Stephanie Shirley: 'Men Told Me There Was No Market For Software Houses. We Proved Them Wrong.'

The pioneering 89-year-old entrepreneur shares her life story as a child refugee who fled Nazi Germany and created a $3 billion technology company. 

Background: 

At BoF VOICES 2022, the pioneering 89-year-old entrepreneur Dame Stephanie Shirley discussed her life working with early computers at the London’s Post Office Research Station and how, against all odds, she created a software company for — and run by — other ambitious women, valued at almost $3 billion.  

“You could always tell ambitious women by the shape of our heads. They're flat on top and that comes from being patted patronisingly,” said Shirley, describing the sexist work environments of the day. 

This week on The BoF Podcast, Dame Stephanie discusses the hurdles she had to overcome as a woman in the technology industry, the growth of her influential company, Freelance Programmers, and warns us about the growing power of giant technology companies.

Key Insights:

• Growing up as a child refugee who fled from Nazi Germany Shirley realised that being able to adapt was the key to surviving and thriving. “I realised that change is often welcome indeed, that I could initiate change. And when it was necessary, that sense of personal empowerment took time to develop. But it has never left me,” said Shirley. 
• Freelance Programmers was one of the first software companies that allowed women, who had long left the workforce to create families, to work from home, she explained. “It was a company of women, a company for women, an early social business, a software house which recruited professionally qualified women who had left the industry,” said Shirley.
• For Shirley, trying to thrive in a male-dominated field like software development, required a little “subterfuge.” After other businesses refused to respond to her letters signed with her name, “Stephanie” Shirley quickly adapted and began signing them as “Steve.” “If I used the family nickname of Steve … customers would not only read them, but pick up the phone to reply. When they discovered that Steve was actually a woman, they were already half hooked,” said Shirley. 
• According to Shirley, as the Internet develops so does the divide between the corporate world and the common Internet user, further widening the gap between the truth and fiction. “Our reliance on digital technology has placed us in the hands of powerful tech innovators and the giant corporations they spawned … They have the power to influence our daily lives in ways few people understand,” said Shirley.

Additional Resources:

• How Technology Can Power a Better Future: During BoF VOICES, The Business of Fashion hosts Dame Stephanie Shirley who discusses her first company, Freelance Programmers and what it was like working in a male dominated industry in the 1960s. 

Please watch the full interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoOtQdBod9U 

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