Dame Stephanie "Steve" Shirley CH has passed away aged 91

1 alexbilbie 1 8/11/2025, 8:15:41 AM twitter.com ↗

Comments (1)

alexbilbie · 4h ago
For those who don't know, Dame Stephanie “Steve” Shirley was a British entrepreneur and philanthropist, famous for founding Freelance Programmers in 1962 - a pioneering software company that primarily employed women working from home, decades before remote work was normal.

She changed her name to Stephanie and later adopted “Steve” as a professional first name to overcome gender bias in business correspondence - male clients were more likely to respond.

She came to Britain as a child refugee via the Kindertransport in 1939.

You can read more about her story here - https://www.steveshirley.com/