Dame Stephanie Shirley: Why do ambitious women have flat heads?
דיים סטפני שירלי: למה לנשים שאפתניות יש ראש שטוח?
In 1962, Dame Stephanie "Steve" Shirley founded Freelance Programmers, a software firm with innovative work practices -- and (mainly) women employees. Full bio
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software company back in the 1960s,
of an autistic child?
now given away serious money?
I got onto a train in Vienna,
מהזמן שעליתי על רכבת בוינה,
nearly 10,000 Jewish children
כמעט 10,000 ילדים יהודים
of my nine-year-old sister
את היד של אחותי בת התשע
what was going on.
why am I going there?"
I was helped by generous strangers.
עזרו לי זרים נדיבים.
to be later reunited
להתאחד מאוחר יותר
with them again.
מעולם לא התחברתי איתם שוב.
since that miserable day
העשורים מאז אותו יום אומלל
who has lost their human rights can feel.
את זכויות האנוש שלו יכול להרגיש.
that was worth saving.
of the first such startups in Britain.
באחד הסטארטאפים הראשונים באנגליה.
a company for women,
because software, at that time,
מפני שתוכנה באותו זמן,
certainly not from a woman.
of the universities with decent degrees,
מהאוניברסיטאות עם תארים טובים,
who'd left the industry on marriage,
את התעשיה עם הנישואים,
home-working organization.
going back into the workforce
שחוזרות לכוח העבודה
new, flexible work methods:
שיטות עבודה גמישות:
and eventually, co-ownership
ולבסוף, בעלות משותפת
into the hands of the staff
or the only woman that.
או האישה היחדה בזה.
on the stock exchange,
without my husband's permission.
חשבון בנק ללא רשות בעלי.
the battles for the right to work
בקרבות עבור הזכות לעבוד
from people at work or in society
מאנשים בעבודה או בחברה
family responsibilities.
the conventions of the time,
from "Stephanie" to "Steve"
את שמי מ"סטפני" ל"סטיב"
before anyone realized
and that's precisely what it was,
וזה בדיוק מה שהיא היתה,
on the dining room table,
קטנה יותר: על שולחן חדר האוכל,
of 100 dollars in today's terms,
ל 100 דולר במונחים של היום,
by borrowing against the house.
the market was commercial --
השוק היה מסחרי --
which I found rather boring.
operational research work,
that interested me
that was valued by the clients:
lots and lots of stock control.
שליטה במניות, הרבה מאוד שליטה במניות.
part-time nature of the staff
והעבודה במשרה חלקית של הצוות
one of the very first to do so.
אחד מהראשונים לעשות זאת.
that the programming
of Supersonic Concord
of women working in their own homes.
"trust the staff" approach
גישת "בטחו בצוות" פשוטה
"Do you have access to a telephone?"
"האם יש לכן גישה לטלפון?"
software standards
maddeningly hard-to-control activity,
them over the years,
to develop flowcharts
usually machine code,
by mail to a data center
paper tape or card
in order to verify it.
near a computer.
came in in Britain
our pro-female policies.
unintended consequences,
it only works because it's small."
זה עובד רק בגלל שזה קטן."
they accepted, "Yes, it is sizable now,
הם אמרו, "כן, היא גדולה עכשיו,
valued at over three billion dollars,
שהוערכה ביותר משלושה מיליארד דולר,
into millionaires,
by the shape of our heads:
שאפתניות לפי צורת הראש שלהן:
patted patronizingly.
away from the kitchen sink.
כדי לעמוד הרחק מכיור המטבח.
two secrets of success:
and people that you like;
ואנשים שאתם אוהבים;
very, very carefully.
"My husband's an angel,"
"You're lucky," she said,
we'd all be millionaires.
of family trauma and indeed, crisis.
במרכז טראומה משפחתית ובהחלט, משבר.
a beautiful, contented baby.
היה בני יחידי, תינוק יפיפה ומספק.
unmanageable toddler.
and he never spoke again.
והוא מעולם לא דיבר שוב.
house of the first charity that I set up
של הצדקה הראשונה שהקמתי
a groundbreaking Prior's Court school
again, all for autism.
in services, I tried to help.
ניסיתי לעזור.
and making new things happen.
ולגרום לדברים חדשים לקרות.
think tank for autism.
to the industry from which it stems,
לתעשיה ממנה הוא הגיע,
the Oxford Internet Institute
focuses not on the technology,
מתמקד לא בטכנולוגיה,
and ethical issues of the Internet.
החוקיים והאתים של האינטרנט.
without his need of me.
would quickly come and find me.
שיבואו במהרה למצוא אותי.
for an enterprise,
self-belief and determination,
that borders on the obsessive.
that I'm a workaholic.
do it properly and in humility.
כשאנחנו עושים אותה טוב ובענווה.
when I'd rather be doing something else.
כשאני מעדיפה לעשות משהו אחר.
never going to be like today,
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Dame Stephanie Shirley - Entrepreneur and philanthropistIn 1962, Dame Stephanie "Steve" Shirley founded Freelance Programmers, a software firm with innovative work practices -- and (mainly) women employees.
Why you should listen
In the austerity of post-World War II England, jobs were few, and opportunities for women to earn a wage were even fewer. So, on her dining room table, Stephanie Shirley founded the kind of company she'd like to work for -- one that posed challenging, rewarding tasks, built around flexible work rules that made it possible to have a real life. Her software company, Freelance Programmers made her one of the richest women in England (and one of the few to have earned her own money). Initially employing only women -- Shirley often bid for contracts as "Steve" to compete in the male-dominated industry -- the company was eventually valued at $3 billion, while 70 of the staff became millionaires when it floated on the stock market.
But money wasn't Shirley's object. "A lot of people go into business to make money," she told the Guardian. "I really didn't; I went in with a mission for women. Conversely, I was determined never, ever to be poor again." Freelance Programmers became the FI Group became Xansa; it was acquired by Steria in 2007.
Shirley retired in 1993, but she hasn't stopped pushing for progress in the fields she loves. For instance, she works tirelessly to push forward research into autism spectrum disorders, as well as to study and improve the IT industry and the role of the internet in society. She told the Guardian, "I do get committed, and I don't just give my money; I try to give of myself."
Dame Stephanie Shirley | Speaker | TED.com