Dame Stephanie Shirley: Why do ambitious women have flat heads?
Dama Stephanie Shirley: Dlaczego ambitne kobiety mają płaskie głowy?
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,
z początku lat 60.,
of an autistic child?
now given away serious money?
I got onto a train in Vienna,
w którym wsiadłam do pociągu z Wiednia,
nearly 10,000 Jewish children
10 000 żydowskich dzieci
of my nine-year-old sister
kurczowo starszej siostry
what was going on.
zastanawiałam się:
why am I going there?"
I was helped by generous strangers.
pomogli mi hojni, obcy ludzie.
to be later reunited
bo potem znów spotkałam
with them again.
since that miserable day
od tamtego smutnego dnia,
niż mogłam zamarzyć.
who has lost their human rights can feel.
kto utracił podstawowe prawa człowieka.
that was worth saving.
żeby moje życie było warte ocalenia.
of the first such startups in Britain.
firm programistycznych w Anglii.
a company for women,
because software, at that time,
bo ówczesne oprogramowanie
certainly not from a woman.
a już na pewno nie od kobiety.
of the universities with decent degrees,
z dobrymi wynikami,
zatrzymujący nasz postęp.
możliwości dla kobiet.
who'd left the industry on marriage,
które porzuciły branżę, wychodząc za mąż,
home-working organization.
na pracy chałupniczej.
going back into the workforce
powracanie kobiet do pracy
new, flexible work methods:
elastycznych metod pracy,
and eventually, co-ownership
i wreszcie współwłasność,
into the hands of the staff
mojemu zespołowi,
or the only woman that.
albo "jedyną" w owym.
on the stock exchange,
pracować na giełdzie,
czy pilotować samolotu.
without my husband's permission.
bez pozwolenia męża.
the battles for the right to work
walczyło o prawo do pracy
from people at work or in society
w pracy czy w życiu społecznym,
family responsibilities.
the conventions of the time,
ówczesne zwyczaje,
from "Stephanie" to "Steve"
ze "Stephanie" na "Steve"
before anyone realized
zanim ktoś się zorientował,
and that's precisely what it was,
on the dining room table,
of 100 dollars in today's terms,
dzisiejszych 100 dolarów.
by borrowing against the house.
i z pożyczki pod hipotekę domu.
the market was commercial --
a rynek był komercyjny.
which I found rather boring.
raczej mnie nudziły.
operational research work,
między badaniami operacyjnymi,
that interested me
wyzwaniem intelektualnym,
that was valued by the clients:
co cenili klienci.
rozkład jazdy pociągów towarowych,
lots and lots of stock control.
part-time nature of the staff
chałupniczy charakter pracy
one of the very first to do so.
oferując stałe ceny.
that the programming
of Supersonic Concord
of women working in their own homes.
w swoich własnych domach.
"trust the staff" approach
"Do you have access to a telephone?"
"Czy masz dostęp do telefonu?".
software standards
standardy oprogramowania
maddeningly hard-to-control activity,
było trudno kontrolować,
them over the years,
za tworzenie aktualizacji,
i transseksualne,
to develop flowcharts
nad diagramami sekwencji działań,
usually machine code,
by mail to a data center
do centrum danych,
paper tape or card
na papierową taśmę lub kartę,
in order to verify it.
żeby go zweryfikować.
near a computer.
przed wprowadzeniem pecetów.
we wczesnych latach 60.
po rozpoczęciu działalności,
came in in Britain
przeciwdziałające dyskryminacji,
our pro-female policies.
naszą pro-kobiecą politykę.
unintended consequences,
mężczyźni mówili:
it only works because it's small."
tylko dlatego, że jest mała".
they accepted, "Yes, it is sizable now,
"Owszem, jest już całkiem spora,
valued at over three billion dollars,
ponad 3 miliardy dolarów,
into millionaires,
by the shape of our heads:
rozpoznać po kształcie głowy.
patted patronizingly.
protekcjonalnego poklepywania.
away from the kitchen sink.
żeby stać daleko od zlewu kuchennego.
two secrets of success:
kluczami do sukcesu.
and people that you like;
i tymi, których lubicie.
very, very carefully.
ale to bardzo ostrożnie.
"My husband's an angel,"
"You're lucky," she said,
we'd all be millionaires.
wszyscy bylibyśmy milionerami.
of family trauma and indeed, crisis.
a beautiful, contented baby.
Pięknym, radosnym dzieckiem.
i trudny w wychowaniu.
unmanageable toddler.
and he never spoke again.
house of the first charity that I set up
domu opieki mojej pierwszej fundacji,
a groundbreaking Prior's Court school
szkoła Prior's Court,
again, all for autism.
in services, I tried to help.
próbowałam pomóc.
and making new things happen.
think tank for autism.
do spraw autyzmu.
to the industry from which it stems,
wraca tam, skąd wyszła.
the Oxford Internet Institute
oraz inne przedsięwzięcia
focuses not on the technology,
skupia się nie na technologi,
ekonomicznych, prawnych
and ethical issues of the Internet.
i jego potrzeb.
without his need of me.
would quickly come and find me.
for an enterprise,
self-belief and determination,
graniczącego z obsesją.
that borders on the obsessive.
that I'm a workaholic.
że jestem pracoholiczką.
do it properly and in humility.
when I'd rather be doing something else.
never going to be like today,
wyglądało jak dzisiaj,
że mam trudny charakter.
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