Kina Zeidler A dame before her time At the beginning of the 1960s, women could not even open a bank account . Dame Stephanie Shirley started her own company . With only women employees. She was knighted and one of Great Britain’s richest women. But life was not always easy.

The choice of location could not have been more fitting. The security guards moved homely in private surroundings, the golf course was nyfriserad. The five-star hotel The Grove in Hertfordshire, just outside London had been here before; welcomed politicians, royalty, Internet gurus and the odd rock star to the 300-acre castle garden. Now it was time again. These were, as well as the last ten years, Google's Larry Page and company chairman Eric Schmidt, invited some of the world's brightest minds to the search engine's wings and join forces in trying to define "contemporary spirit," during a TED-like conference. The informal atmosphere was understated well directed. UNICEF Ambassador David Beckham was seen taking a selfie with celebrity physicist Stephen Hawking. Before breakfast several of the invited audience ran around along with Olympic gold medalist and long-distance runner Mo Farah along the castle garden raked gravel roads. Other guests played a few holes of the Irish golf champion and Ryder Cup winner Paul McGinley. No bar name tag.

The year was 2015, a year that in many respects was the unicorn DEVICES years, ie companies that are valued at one billion dollars, but to make it on the curated by Google Zeitgeist Conference took more than being an acclaimed IT entrepreneur. The invited speakers, well aware that they are consulted on the basis of criteria that they in some way shown interest in changing the world for the better, mingled among the chosen audience, most important partners for Google or expected ones. This year, the guest list is more limited than ever. Get the Google executives had been invited, nor synthesis someone from the Swedish unicorn companies to. For the crowd waited two intense days. Some of our greatest challenges were discussed, but the lecturers were nonetheless encouraged to keep a positive tone during the approximately 15 minutes each had at their disposal. The aim was to instill hope in our audience and get us to act on issues such as climate change, poverty and environmental degradation. Some stuck to the Directives, others found it easier to keep from laughing. Stephen Hawking doubted how prepared we are on what will happen if artificial intelligence takes control of humanity and economist Dambisa Moyo warned of the consequences of that we probably never will experience a necessary global growth of over seven

percent. Environmental activist and documentary filmmaker Yann Arthus-Bertrand snorted impatiently. We sit on the knowledge of what climate change means, yet we do not do enough, he thundered.

Others just wanted to tell their own story, which, in this case, proved to accommodate a story of a very successful mission.

The 82-year-old, British technology entrepreneur Dame Stephanie Shirley stepped up to the podium, looked around, sat down to the right on the wooden chair, tweaked the blond, close-cropped hair and began with the words: "in front of you you will see a museum piece." The audience laughed. She continued: "It is one thing to have a business idea, another to get the deal happening. It requires extraordinary energy, self-control and hours of dedication. But if success were easy to achieve, we would all be millionaires. Success is not easy to achieve. For me it happened moreover in the midst of a family trauma ".

By now, she had a packed room's undivided attention. Who was this female IT pioneer who had started a software company, even before there were any personal computers?

She concludes her speech by turning to a quote by George Bernard Shaw, Nobel Prize winner for literature who also was co-founder of the top-rated School of Economics London School of Economics.

”The reasonable man adapts himself to the conditions that surround him... The unreasonable man adapts surrounding conditions to himself... All progress depends on the unreasonable man.” That’s me.

To be one of Britain's wealthiest women, have probably the more than 10,000-strong town of Henley on Thames in Oxfordshire just outside London, is considered a modest choice of domicile. The city in the bloom of summer thanks to the Henley Royal Rowing Regatta conducted every July and attracts parts of London Society, is nothing like a Monday morning in September makes itself felt. The rain streams down but the station cafe Tubbies Diner offers hardly any protection. We close in 20 minutes, you want something other than black coffee you may as well ignore the order, the waitress men. A short taxi ride later, the housekeeper Shirley Kay received us into the townhouse-like a twostorey house next to the River Thames.

I have always lived here, launching a spirited and välsminkad Dame Stephanie Shirley dressed in striped silk shirt.

She is a German-born Jewish refugee child, which today is one of Britain's richest men and biggest philanthropists. She could travel the world, stay at the finest hotels and dine at the best restaurants, but for those things, she has hardly any interest or time. Stephanie Shirley works as she has always done. And she works hard. In the home country Britain has tried to put an epithet on it since 2000, knighted Shirley. Former refugee feminist philanthropist, a multi-millionaire, or the mother of an autistic child? She says that it is impossible to separate the parts, everything she is, she is because of her 1939 were given the opportunity to leave Nazi Germany for the new homeland Britain.

Shirley shows us around the ultra-modern design, uniformly white and cream-colored flat where the generous work room is heart of the home. There is a whole life gathered in files structured in perfect order. A specially designed desk occupies the majority of the room that is otherwise characterized by books and a portrait of the late son Giles. The only visible signs of wealth are a number of specimens of modern abstract art.

- When I was rich I allowed myself including a painting by Picasso. And a gold watch to my husband Derek. But that is all, she says the lack of extravagances.

She is getting ready, sipping her tea, now she is in every sense British. Before we start the interview, she wants to hear what I have to say about Google Zeitgeist. She has her opinion clear. _________________________________________________________________________________ Roster on Stephanie Shirley

Peter Mimpriss Former member of lstyrelsen Dame Stephanie Shirley's valgoenhetsstiftelse . Even before this valgorenhetsradgivare to Prince Charles . When I first met Dame Stephanie Shirley we immediately got on well. When she asked me if I would like to become vice chairman of her new jet valgorenhetssiftelse I said yes , I etftersom bendrar her very much . In contrast, I knew nothing about autism . There she was fantastic. She took me to one of the schools she had started and showed me how denfungerade . It was a great school with many teachers and beautiful milje and I was even more impressed by her. Dame Stephanie Shirley has

given a lot of money to her foundation, but she has also given a huge amount of her own time and that is exactly the way to be an effective philanthropist .

Talare

TED conference collapsed after Stephanie Shirley told the story of how she changed her name to Steve to win more contracts in a male-dominated industry _________________________________________________________________________________

- Some people have accomplished something, they're not just talking about other people's theories and analyzes these. I prefer to hear stories from those who have experienced them. But Stephen Hawking, I liked of course, she adds.

Hawking is a personal friend, who just like Shirley has lived close to a person with autism, in Hawking's case, his grandchildren. And perhaps it is on the basis of Hawking that we can begin our conversation about Shirley's life's work. "Take advantage of your full potential," urged Hawking during the Zeitgeist. "And use your life in the best possible way!"

Shirley's gaze falls on a picture of Emerich Roth, the Swedish author who survived the Nazi death camps and that is finely portrayed with intimate photos in a magazine that I have taken with me. - One can see in him that he has fled Nazism. Look at the sad feature of the eyes!

Self defend themselves Shirley to be defined as a refugee, would rather she be considered a hardworking woman who has so far donated over £ 67 million to charity and still working 50-hour weeks, though she, like 83-year-old, "not is just as effective. "

- Working is what I do. Working is not something I do when I would rather do something else. And now I take modern technology to help me.

I ask about Derek, the man she married in 1959 and whom in her lectures describes as a "good choice of spouse" and "one of the most important ingredients for a woman who wants to succeed." The former physicist Derek is not visible. He has grown older, says Stephanie Shirley easy. Every day they walk together along the river. After almost 60 years of marriage, they are a hardworking couple who made it through more than most. So, simple it has not been. But that's life, she smiles.

About 10 000 children during World War II are said to have been saved from the Nazis with the help of rescue Kindertransport. The children were sent to foster parents, primarily in the UK and many never saw their biological parents again. Had Stephanie Shirley lived the life that was meant for her, it would have been vastly different. She was born in 1933 into a wealthy family, the Jewish girl Vera Buchthal. In 1939 she was sent, five years old, along with her teddy bear and her four years older sister Renate to the small town of Sutton Coldfield in the English countryside. The childless couple Guy and Ruby Smith was a modest but friendly couple for whom Vera, unlike her older sister, soon settled down with. In her memoirs, "Let It Go" from 2012 depicts her how she, a few years later, was reunited with her biological mother, but the relationship was marred by the past and she never re-established some ties. Nor did the father who, after the war remarried and moved back to Germany. Shirley shrugs. - My biological mother stroked me out of her will, which was a wicked thing to do. But after my book came out told my friends that she would have been proud of me. Maybe so, but she never managed to be.

Expectations of what Vera Buchthal could accomplish with her life were limited. Her foster mother was described as a bushy and happy person, but without academic ambitions. But already at an "unusually young age," it turned out that Stephanie Brook, the name she adopted when she was18 years old, had an aptitude for especially mathematics. Her foster parents managed to find a spot in a boys' school for the young Vera, who for the first time was given an insight into a male-dominated society. Her initial appointment at The Post Office Research Station at Dollis Hill in London gave her an annual salary of 215 pounds and routine tasks for the now 26-year-old Stephanie. Although life around her was monotonous and Stephanie found it difficult to fill the time. Even in the company of former refugees whom she met, she didn’t feel at home, but perhaps thanks to a psychologist, she finally agreed to come to terms with a greater understanding of the person she had become: while she had a strong sense of independence, she wanted nothing more than to blend in. She pretended to be a nice girl with no particular ambitions, met men but was often frustrated at being unable to be matched intellectually and realized that her opinions hardly gained support in the workplace. In her memoirs, Shirley describes it as a shocking discovery when one day she realized that if she really wanted to reach somewhere, she had to get there by herself. So she started to stand up for her role as a woman. If she was offered help carrying her typewriter, she replied: "I believe in equal pay, and therefore I carry my typewriter myself."

Stephanie Shirley laughs, now she takes every opportunity if someone offers. But when she met her future husband, she did what was expected of her, left her job at the post office and started a new

one in Computer Development Limited, she was part of a software group and became increasingly fascinated by the subject, she began to think of ideas: if a computer can do X, what good could it do Y? And how could it be a business benefit? At the same time, she realised more and more often that her opinions were not counted and that her sex deprived her career ambitions. An idea began to slowly emerge.

Six pounds. So that was the start of Stephanie Shirley’s company, a business of the home program and selling software. The year was 1962, Stephanie Shirley was 29 years, and at this time, women in the UK could not drive a bus or airplane or even less open a bank account without their husband's consent. Many laughed at the strange idea. Software at fixed prices? Everyone said but that’s given away free with the hardware! The programmers developed flow charts with pen and paper, then wrote code that was sent by mail to a data center where it was punched. Then verified Shirley programmers punching.

- This was computer programming 50 years ago! Shirley smiles delightedly.

The company was named Freelance Programmers "because it was exactly what we were" and the idea was to hire flexible-working, female, freelance programmer who had stopped work because of children or marriage. It was a time when no one expected much of women, either at work or in the community, Shirley began to challenge conventional thinking and changed her name to Stephanie "Steve" to win more contracts in a male-dominated society.

Gradually they began programming tasks such as inventory control, scheduling of freight trains and localization of oil depots to fall into.

- When I started Freelance Programmers the men said: How interesting! But it works only because it is small. As the company grew told the men said: "Sure it's great now, but the company has no strategic value. When F.I. Group (the company was later renamed) was valued at three billion US dollars, the men said: "Good job, Steve!"

She uses the story above during her lectures, and the effect is usually the same, the audience laughs and some men feel a little embarrassed. But during the early 60's Shirley’s crusade for women was considered ridiculous. Until that is, the aircraft model Supersonic Concorde's black box was programmed by a "bunch of women who worked from home." - Who would have thought it, she asks rhetorically.

How did the men handle their wives working? Stephanie Shirley nodding toward Derek's part of the apartment. An understanding man, is - and was the key, she says.

- I think many men were perfectly okay to let the women have their own little side interest, but I know that some women never told his men what they really did during the day. When the man came home at 18 o'clock the desk was cleared, the children washed and the food on the table.

She sees herself as a pioneer who solved a problem for women who wanted to go back to work after a break of childbirth and she thinks that her generation was the one who seriously took up the fight for equal pay and working conditions. But even if she willingly spreads the word about how she, as a woman was often treated unfairly in their previous jobs, she says that the idea to start their own was not inspired by a desire to make money. It was a crusade about women for women.

Then, in the 60s, feminism was anti men, and that I have never been. Many of my colleagues and I defended ourselves against the concept of feminism. She laughs shyly, turning a little in the beige armchair and lowers her voice when she reproduces the memory of the first time she came in contact with a black man. She sat on a bus and realized "ashamed" that she was shocked to meet a person with a look she had never come across.

- But the incident made me understand something about "underdogs" and in the future I would always support the "underdogs".

According to a survey conducted by the UN Development UNDP, which amongst other things, measures the degree of equality between the sexes on the basis of income inequality and justice, places Britain far down the rankings, no matter how you measure, while Sweden is doing well. But while Shirley believes that women are "underdogs," she snorts today a little at the idea of them being equal in Sweden. There are more countries with gender equality on the agenda and, behaved women in the West that if it lasts more discrimination than it actually does, she believes. She covers her eyes at me, as if to impress upon me that this is the most important she will say during the time we have available.

- I'm not a feminist, I am a humanist. I believe that every single person can make a difference. And that thought control my life.

In an article in the Jewish journal, The Jewish Chronicle from 2014 spoke Shirley that she believes that women today have it easy compared to her time and thus have nothing to complain about. The interview was picked up by The Independent and Shirley stirred up feelings in the country. When I asked if she really believes that women today have the same privileges as men, she answers me directly: what do you think?

It's not about getting a job or a position, it is about give and take, she adds. Women today have a choice. - If women do not choose to take the opportunities they are given, it is because they are not willing to sacrifice and give the time that it takes to become successful. You have to want to be a leader and you must be willing to pay the price for your work. It's all about sacrifice.

But what should the ambitious and modern women do that despite legislative struggling to get up the job and personal life? The men you describe are those who try to live up to other women's expectations of what a good woman is. One must not bake their own bread. Learn to be yourself. Do not be influenced by others.

Her own schedule is still full, just as she wants it. Lectures in Silicon Valley, Paris and Cambridge are on the agenda in the near future, most of them on the theme of women and careers. After the interview, she will drive to the local swimming pool and swim half a mile. It's all about keeping the energy levels up, she does not allow it to tail off, she says.

The housekeeper Kay knocks and fill the tea cups. Stephanie Shirley takes a sip. Still full of energy. When asked what should be written on her tombstone, she has already decided: "She was worth saving," she was worth saving. Shirley laughs her throaty laugh, marked by years of cigarette smoking, when life was at its hardest, she smoked 60 a day.

To begin with son Giles was a perfectly normal and happy child, but at just over two years of age, he stopped talking. Stephanie and Derek Shirley’s son came after a series of miscarriages and they were so happy when he was born in 1963, then came the shock when they learned he suffered from severe autism. At the age of ten Giles became violent and unpredictable rages a part of the family's everyday life and Shirley testifies to say the least, chaotic family situation became increasingly untenable. Giles demanded constant surveillance and had to move to a home for autistic children, an arrangement that often gave the couple Shirley a guilty conscience because of the substandard conditions the homes meant.

- Few people understood the enormous pressure I was under. I'm very proud and did not tell anything which it was total chaos

During the 1970s economic downturn in the UK meant the F.I. Group struggled tooth and nail not to go bankrupt. The rest of the time Shirley spent with Giles. Everything else - theater, travel and friends - had to wait. The combined stress led her in 1976, to a nervous breakdown.

- I think you can handle a crisis, but when there are two crises at the same time it is too heavy. No man should have to go through it.

Did you change your way of life after the collapse? - I did nothing but work. I am one of those defined by my work.

In her book, Shirley writes about one evening when a nature documentary appeared on television. Derek and Stephanie had hardly time to devote program a glance, but when they cast an eye on the picture, they saw a cuckoo which gradually tried to take over a nest with two sparrows which, in turn, more and more exhausted, worked to feed the young intruder . Cuckoo grew larger, more demanding and more aggressive - and sparrows became increasingly impoverished and degraded. "I remember that Derek and I looked at each other and thought the same thing: this is what was our life has become. I said it would be best if we all took our own lives. Derek listened quietly, but his one objection was that it would be not be about suicide for Giles. It would be murder. Then we dropped the idea of a suicide pact ".

The couple decided to separate, but in 1998 the then 35-year-old Giles died during an epileptic seizure. Shirley sways a little on the chair, says she used to dream of Giles each night. I don’t anymore. I'm much more comfortable with the fact that he is no longer with us, I have a peace within me. We did the best we could. Today we mourn differently. My husband is still angry, which is just nonsense, says Shirley. The idea of them parting faded soon after Giles's death. - I've learned to live without Giles, and his need for me, but the death of a child normally finishes a marriage, she says. In this case, the Shirleys’ relationship was strengthened rather than fail.

- Actually, I consider my greatest accomplishment in life is that I've managed to keep my marriage together, she says.

When F.I. Group, by this time renamed Xansa, was sold to the French IT consulting company Steria SCA in 2007, the company had 8,500 employees, of whom 70 had become millionaires in sterling,k thanks to Shirley who gave away 25% of its share (a " amazing feeling "). When the company was at its highest value, Stephanie Shirley was personally worth £150m and the UK's eleventh richest woman, beaten only by the English queen. A staggering thought, but the Shirley couple decided to continue living the life as they had always done. Shirley retired in 1993 and went on to dedicate herself full-time to philanthropy, helping to improve the prospects for young people and adults with autism, she decided.

Britain is one of the most generous countries, but despite that donates only 28% of the country's high income to charity, compared with 98% in the US, according to SOURCE.

- Britons are very generous when it comes to dealing with the crises in the Third World, where money flows in. £5 here and £10 there. But when it comes to the real money, they’d rather not talk about it. Shirley said in a theatrical whisper.

- We are very silent about money. And there is something very British.

Just like Bill Gates, another software developer who has shifted the focus, Shirley wants to be remembered for her philanthropic deeds. To some extent, she has focused on IT issues, but today the largest part of the business is focused on autism. According to Shirley's estimates, the annual cost of autism in the UK is £32 billion and one of her goals in 2014 was to reach a breakthrough on the underlying causes of autism. Really so far reached, but it is important to have a clear focus, she says. She has started schools, supports think tanks, research and is working hard to develop a national line of charities who will work to help people with autism. A large part of her time she puts on channelling young people and adults with autism into the workplace.

- The conditions are different, but the basic problem is the same. It's about "underdogs". We must learn to accept that people have different conditions and we have to realize that people therefore need to work in different ways.

In 2009, Stephanie Shirley was elected to be Britain's Ambassador for Philanthropy, a title she had in a year, far too short a time to make a difference, she says. But Shirley still thinks she managed to make philanthropy into a household term, and she highlighted the difference between charity and philanthropy.

- Philanthropy is all about focus, and it is about to formulate thoughts as: "why people live on the street?" And then try to do something about it. The idea of justice applies to most people, most agree and say it is not fair that I should have so much while others go hungry.

The fact that a refugee be designated to represent their country as an ambassador for the charity was an honor Shirley says that she only now realises and feels comfortable that she could be a model for other refugees. For a long time she did not set foot on German soil, to be too marked by having been a refugee during World War II.

- But then I realized that it is up to me to start communicating, being a role model. I joined the German-English Society which was an association of Europe. You must go on! This applies to both nations as for people. Angela Merkel has moved on from the Second World War. She is strong. In addition, she holds us (Europeans, ed. Note) together now in these times of challenges related to refugee flows. It's very impressive.

So far, Stephanie Shirley has invested in over 100 organizations, making life easier in some ways for young people and adults with autism, but she says that she gets back as much as she gives.

- People give for a number of reasons, she says, finishing her cup of tea. It can be about family tradition, or belief.

Why do you give?

- I give because of my personal history. I've had a good life, been given everything and still do good. I have also paid a high price, but that I have been willing to pay

Kina Zeidler Is a journalist . She remembers Stephanie Shirley laughs and she seemed so calm , satisfied and happy. Anders Linden Is a photographer . This was the third time he has been to England for photographing a cover

portraits at Icon .