How Dame Stephanie Shirley opened doors for women in STEM

To mark International Women in Engineering Day 2026, Patent Attorney Gary Smith reflects on the impact of Dame Stephanie’s lifetime of achievements as a ground-breaking scientist, entrepreneur and philanthropist.

 

Like available fusion power or personal jetpacks, equal representation in science and engineering at all levels has been one of those ‘one generation away’ accomplishments. Women still only make up roughly 12–15% of the engineering workforce which is a significant improvement over Engineering workplaces and university courses in the 1990’s, which would further be seen as being an improvement from earlier generations. 

 

One of the early role models for cultural acceptance of women in STEM, who over her whole engineering career held the metaphorical door open for many, many more was Dame Stephanie “Steve” Shirley. 

 

A pioneering British computer scientist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist whose work transformed both the software industry and opportunities for women in STEM and one whose story deserves to be better known and understood.

 

Born Vera Buchthal, she arrived in Britain in 1939 as an unaccompanied Kindertransport child refugee; an early experience which led her to later realise that, “I love England, my adopted country, with a passion only someone who had lost their human rights could feel. I decided to make my life one worth saving.”  

 

Like many who believe that they have been given an opportunity not provided to others she used this to map her own path despite the obstacles raised by the many societal norms of the day. Thus, when she was told that Mathematics was not taught at her school, she obtained permission to take lessons at the local boys’ school. She decided not to go to university, as botany was the “only science then available to my gender”, but entered engineering and helped build early computers and wrote machine code while taking evening classes to obtain an honours degree in mathematics. 

 

By the 1960’s, inequality and sexism within the industry led her to found the software company Freelance Programmers. She adopted the name “Steve” professionally to overcome gender bias, after finding that company letters signed with her real name were not being answered.

 

Ahead of her time, she regarded the company as a social endeavour as well as a business. She predominantly employed women (with only three male programmers in the first 300 staff, until the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 made that practice illegal), offered flexible, home-based work decades before remote working became mainstream, and through her co-ownership structure made millionaires of over 70 of the staff.

 

Dame Stephanie’s legacy is that meaningful change can be accelerated through courage, innovation, and a commitment to inclusion. By helping others to advance, she transformed both an industry and countless lives, leaving a powerful blueprint for future generations determined to finish the work she so boldly initiated.

 

This briefing is for general information purposes only and should not be used as a substitute for legal advice relating to your particular circumstances. We can discuss specific issues and facts on an individual basis. Please note that the law may have changed since the day this was first published in June 2026.