Dame Stephanie ‘Steve’ Shirley: Tough, Smart, and Ahead of Her Time

Published 14th August 2025

We were saddened here at the Association to hear that Dame Stephanie Shirley CH, passed away on 9 August aged 91. She leaves behind a legacy that every D&T teacher can share with students, a story of resilience, innovation, and a refusal to accept the limits society tried to place on her.

Born Vera Buchthal in Dortmund, Germany, in 1933, she fled Nazi persecution at the age of five on the Kindertransport, arriving in Britain to live with foster parents. Those early experiences forged a determination that would later propel her to the forefront of the UK’s computing industry.

In 1962, at a time when women in tech were rare and leadership roles for women rarer still, she founded Freelance Programmers, later FI Group and eventually Xansa. Her radical decision to almost exclusively employ women (297 out of her first 300 recruits) created opportunities for mothers to work flexibly from home decades before “remote working” became common. She even began signing her name “Steve” to be taken seriously by male business contacts.

Her work shifted perceptions of what women could achieve in STEM. And she used her success to give back donating nearly £70 million to causes close to her heart, including autism research and support services, driven in part by her late son Giles’s needs.

In her own words, Dame Stephanie believed in using wealth and influence “for good”, and she never stopped standing up to sexism. For today’s students, her example shows that courage, creativity, and conviction can truly change an industry.