Steve (Dame Stephanie) Shirley designed her software company Freelance Programmers (later, the FI Group) to offer meaningful home based jobs to skilled women with children.
Dame Stephanie’s own website explains, “By the early 1960s … Stephanie Shirley was becoming frustrated with the low expectations, inequality and sexism that women faced in the workplace. She decided to start her own company, selling software. It was called Freelance Programmers, and it was staffed by women working from home, blazing a trail for flexible working practices for women with caring responsibilities. 297 of the first 300 staff were women. At the time, when a woman couldn’t open a bank account without her husband’s permission, this idea was truly revolutionary.”
In 1975, the Sex Discrimination Act made it no longer legal to employ solely women. In response, the company expanded its founding principle (to provide meaningful home-based employment for young mothers with software skills), to “people with dependents unable to work in a conventional environment”.
The business writer Michel Syrett commented in 1985, “Around 71 per cent of staff work from home — ideal for married women, and for a slowly growing number of men who likewise appreciate being able to care for children, or maybe start their own business. Hours are from a minimum of 20 a week when a project is underway … contact with head office and the five regional sales offices is through project managers and staffing co-ordinators. In essence the company uses the skills of women who have opted out of the everyday labour market after having had at least four years work experience with computers.”