Freelance Programmers
Dame Stephanie Shirley
I was born in Germany at a time of horrendous discrimination and my parents organised for me to come to England on the Kindertransport, which brought 10,000 unaccompanied child refugees to this country just before the Second World War.
I loved mathematics even at school, but girls’ schools in those days didn’t really do science. I fought to be taught mathematics and had to transfer to the boys school.
After working in the public sector and in private industry for the computer manufacturer ICL, I decided to start my own company. I had hit the glass ceiling, and I was sick and tired of coming across sexism every day. I decided to set up a company that was the sort of company that women would want to work for: a company of women, managed by women.
I found that signing my business development letters Stephanie Shirley – Shirley being my marital name – got no response whatsoever. My dear husband suggested that I use the family nickname of Steve. Things began to take off. I’ve been Steve ever since.
I am incredibly grateful for the opportunities that I have had in Britain. The fact that I nearly died in the Holocaust means that I was very motivated to make sure that mine was a life that had been worth saving.
The video interview with Dame Stephanie Shirley below is part of What Would You Do?, an interactive installation at the Migration Museum in Lewisham
