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April 29, 2004
Dame Stephanie Shirley and F International
Datatid, a Norwegian computer magazine, wrote several times about Stephanie Shirley - or 'Steve' as she liked to call herself according to Datatid - in the 1980s.
Dame Shirley started F International in England in 1962 - a company for programmers and computer consultants who wanted (needed?) to work from home. In 1987 F International had 1100 employees (or associates?) - most of them women, and 75% worked from home.
It's an amazing story and I would like to know more about this. I only found one presentation of her, and it seems to have been written for Who’s Who 2002.
Anyone who knows anything about this company or Shirley?
Posted by Hilde Corneliussen at 12:52 PM in History | Permalink
Comments
She's one of the big funders of the Oxford Internet Institute in England. I met her when I was at the OII's summer doctoral programme last year & she is very nice/inspirational.
She goes by "Steve" because when she started a software company in 1960s or 1970s (not sure when it was) it was a man's business world. She hired all women for her software company (at a time when no one sold software), taught them to code & made a bundle from what I understand.
Posted by: kaye trammell at Apr 29, 2004 3:04:19 PM
I hope this site can help you: http://www.steveshirley.com/
Posted by: anniqa at Apr 29, 2004 3:05:35 PM
Steve Shirley put of the foundation money for the Oxford Internet Institute, I believe. She's also heavily involved in charitable causes.
Posted by: Louise Ferguson at Apr 30, 2004 1:04:48 PM
Sorry, I didn't see the earlier remarks - also wanted to say that OII will be hosting seminars on women in computing this summer - most appropriate.
Posted by: Louise Ferguson at Apr 30, 2004 1:08:11 PM
Thank you all for your help!
Posted by: Hilde at May 3, 2004 6:02:07 AM
There's a brief profile here http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/talktime/story/0,13274,1140988,00.html
F International is now known as Xansa
http://www.xansa.com/
Posted by: Jez at May 12, 2004 8:40:24 AM
