Each week,Weekend Edition Sundayhost Rachel Martin brings listeners an unexpected side of the news by talking with someone personally affected by the stories making headlines.
Entrepreneur Dame Stephanie Shirley started a software company in 1962. FI Group, now known as Xansa, was "a company of women, a company for women," Shirley says. She wanted to create a new business model, encouraging women to work in the tech industry — with flexible schedules.
All the talk was about money, profits, cash flow, whereas I was much more interested in team work, innovation, excellence, quality assurance — some things that people consider the softer things of management.
She ran into a number of issues as she hit the glass ceiling. Among them, her letters to prospective business partners went unanswered — until she started going by a family nickname, "Steve." Shirley discusses her personal struggles balancing family and work and the role society has in mitigating those challenges.
"People were always astonished that I could drive and manage in a situation where I had two things — business and family — that most people would consider all-consuming as one," she tells Rachel Martin, host of Weekend Edition Sunday.
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