  Let me now take you back to the early
1960s. To get
past the gender issues of
that time I set
up my own high tech software
company. One of the first
of the UK's successful start-ups
but beware because the older
I get the better I used
to be.
  It was a company of women
a company for women
An early social business
  People did laugh at the very
idea because you can't
sell software. At that
time it was given away free
with the hardware and they laughed
even louder at my crusade
for women.
  Although women were then coming out
of the universities with decent
degrees, there was a glass
ceiling to our progress
and I'd hit that ceiling
too often.
  I wanted opportunities
for women. So I recruited professionally
qualified women who'd left
the computer industry on marriage
or when they're first child was expected
and structured them into
a home working organisation
  We pioneered the
concept of women going
back into the workforce after
a career break.
  We pioneered a whole lot
of new work methods
all kinds of flexible
working job shares
profit sharing and eventually
co-ownership when I managed
to get a quarter of the company
into the hands of the staff
at no cost to anyone
but me.
  For years I was the
first woman this
the only woman that
Because in those days, women
couldn't work on the stock exchange
we couldn't drive a bus or fly
an aeroplane. I couldn't even
open a bank account
without my husband's permission
  My generation of women fought
  the battles for the right
to work, the right to serve
and the right for equal
pay.
  In my first job, when
handsome young men offered
to carry my calculating
machine for me, I used
to reply somewhat tetchily
'I believe in equal pay
and will carry my own equipment.'
  Now days it's, 'Oh, how
kind. Thank you so
much.'
  No one then expected very
much from woman at work
or in society. All
the expectations were
about home and family
responsibilities
I couldn't accept that
and I started to challenge
the conventions of
the day. Even to the extent
of changing my name from
Stephanie to Steve
in my business development
letters, so that I could get
through that door before anyone
realised my gender.
