Digital Media Center
Bryant-Denny Stadium, Gate 61
920 Paul Bryant Drive
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0370
(800) 654-4262

© 2024 Alabama Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

How Do You Break Into an Industry While Breaking All the Rules?

Part 4 of the TED Radio Hour episode The Meaning Of Work.

About Dame Stephanie Shirley's TED Talk

What's in a name? For tech entrepreneur Dame Stephanie Shirley, bidding contracts under the name "Steve" enabled her to launch and grow a freelance software company with a virtually all-female staff.

About Dame Stephanie Shirley

In 1962, Dame Stephanie "Steve" Shirley founded Freelance Programmers, an innovative software firm that initially only hired women, a rarity in the male-dominated industry.

When she retired in 1993, Shirley had built a billion-dollar company and made millionaires of 70 of her staff members. Now a philanthropist, she supports research to study autism spectrum disorders and strategies to improve the IT industry.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

NPR/TED Staff
News from Alabama Public Radio is a public service in association with the University of Alabama. We depend on your help to keep our programming on the air and online. Please consider supporting the news you rely on with a donation today. Every contribution, no matter the size, propels our vital coverage. Thank you.