Breaking The Tech Industry’s Glass Ceiling … In 1962

“I’d been patronized as a child,” Dame Stephanie Shirley — a.k.a. Steve — tells us this week. “I wasn’t going to be patronized as an adult.” The kind of company that Stephanie Shirley wanted to work for didn’t exist in 1962, so she created her own. “I wanted a company that was suitable for me [and] that I would like to work in,” Shirley says. “And I knew there were lots of women who had also hit the glass ceiling and were completely and utterly ignored by the industry.” She’s talking about the software industry, which was even more of a boys club in the sixties. So Shirley started her own business, hired a bunch of women from IBM, and even changed her first name from Stephanie to Steve — in order to get the attention of potential clients through promotional materials. Shirley tells us her incredible story, which includes creating a company that would later be valued at $3 billion, being made a dame by Queen Elizabeth, and keeping herself mentally and physically fit in the midst of life's many hurdles. Power Up is a Nerdette project where fascinating people explain how they set themselves up for success in an exhausting world. Tell us how YOU power up by recording yourself on your phone and emailing the audio file to [email protected].