‘BCS has long stood for the idea that IT is not just some narrow specialism but, on the contrary, one of the world’s key industries. This seems obvious now but didn’t 60 years ago. I was a founding student member of the Society in 1957 and when it joined the regulatory Engineering Council in 1981, I became qualified as a chartered engineer and was awarded the Institute of Engineering and Technology’s Mountbatten Medal in 1999. Even greater glory: one of the Society’s offices bears my name as the first woman BCS President. That was back in 1989.
‘It’s significant that the Society has “computer” rather than “computing” in its name. The Society started off with all emphasis being on the hardware. At that time, people laughed at the prominence I put on software and, in any case, “No-one can sell software, it’s given away free with the hardware”. From hardware to software, the focus eventually became the networks linking things together and then that network of networks: the internet and its web.
‘Computer Weekly described me as, I quote, “Has been a regular reader in our print days”, “Has been honoured as one of our Most Influential Women in IT” but, I assure you that I’m not a “has been” but am very much still active in the sector, not least with the Oxford Internet Institute.
‘There have been seismic changes in computing. There was debate in the late 50s as to whether the future lay in analogue or digital. Digital systems then required optimum programming (to time commands so that the required data was readily available from the magnetic drum store). We programmed in binary, then machine code, then various assembly and high level languages and thence the current range of AI and sophisticated software.
‘Insights - taking place in this most modern of ways - very much resonates with me… who has been pursuing a vigorous home-based professional career for more than 50 years. I’m classed as a late pioneer of the industry, in the computer museums of California and Bletchley Park. So you see before you a museum piece: one who aimed to be ahead of the curve and is now an early adopter!
‘My life is motivated by having been an unaccompanied child refugee who came to Britain in 1939 fleeing Nazi Europe. That traumatic start made me determined to live a life worth saving. So I try not to fritter my time away and, at 86, am still working.’
‘My first two jobs were technical: eight years in the public service, followed by eighteen seminal months in a small company designing an early computer. I enjoyed both and learnt a lot but found myself - again and again - coming up against the mild sexism which we have learnt to call the Glass Ceiling.
‘That’s what triggered me, in 1962, to set up a software company of women, designed by women, driven by women, the sort of company I would like to work in... with a healthy work / life balance. It was revolutionary. There were many women, experienced in computing, who - as was then the norm - had left the industry on marriage or when their first child was expected. They were keen to work. Initially at home, then from home, finally from work centres. So it was then I became an entrepreneur.
‘We disguised the domestic and part-time nature of the workforce by offering fixed prices – one of the first to do so. Who would have guessed that the programming of the black box flight recorder for supersonic Concorde was done by a team of 30 women working in their homes? That meant moving from presenteeism to measuring performance; that staff were trusted to work the reported hours. And the more we trusted them, the more trustworthy the teams became.
‘An early project was to develop software standards - management control protocols. Software was and is, a maddeningly hard-to-pin-down activity, so that was enormously valuable. We used the standards ourselves and were even paid to update them over the years. Eventually, they were adopted by NATO and I understand some variant is still in use today.
‘For years I was the “first woman” this, the “only woman” that. In those days, women couldn’t work on the stock exchange; couldn’t drive a bus; I couldn’t even open the company’s bank account without my husband’s permission. My generation of women fought the battles for the right to work and for equal pay.
‘In my first job, when strong young men offered to carry my equipment for me, I used to reply somewhat aggressively “I believe in equal pay and will carry my own things”. Nowadays, I sigh: “how kind. Thank you so much.”
‘No one expected much from women in work because all expectations were then about home and family responsibilities. I couldn’t accept that and so challenged the conventions of the time. Even to the extent of changing my name from Stephanie to Steve in my business development letters, so as to get through the door before anyone realised that “he” was a “she”.’
‘Our programmers - remember, only women including non-binary - worked with pencil and paper to develop flowcharts defining each task to be done. They then wrote code, usually machine code (sometimes binary) which was sent, by snail mail, to a data centre for punching onto cards or paper tape; then re-punching to verify… all this prior to submission to the mainframe computer.
‘Our schedules were based on two such accesses a week. That was programming in 1962!
‘In 1975, thirteen years from my company’s start-up, Britain’s Sex Discrimination legislation came in, which meant it was illegal to have our pro-female policies. As a fine example of unintended consequences: we had to let the men in.’
It’s been a long, but never boring, journey. So what advice can I offer you?
‘Absolutely top of the list is to have respect for yourself, your own achievements and potential. We need always to enjoy the little successes. We’re not all going to be millionaires. We’re not all going to be leaders in society. So why not bask in that first contract? That unexpected success? Revel in them rather than focus on any flaws. Enjoy!
‘What confidence gives you is the ability to take risks. Don’t wait for the perfect moment, the perfect candidate, the perfect relationship. Take a risk and make it succeed. I took a gamble when we trained 100 people in COBOL, then a new programming language, before we had our first COBOL assignment.
‘Part of that confidence comes from learning from your mistakes, making sure you don’t repeat them. Just as we try new equipment, new software, new methods; so, we should always aim to make new mistakes. Managers talk about “harvesting from our errors.”
‘Another way to feel positive about things in your life that are going wrong is to ask “what’s the worst that can happen?” And once you’ve faced that and decided what you’d do if the worst did happen, then everything else is dead easy.
‘We each try hard to learn, to improve our performance. But nobody does anything by themselves any more. It’s all a matter of teamwork. So, another secret is to always surround yourself with people who work smarter than you do (my colleagues will confirm I do that). And choose your partner very carefully! The other day, when I said, “my husband’s an angel” a woman complained “you’re lucky. Mine’s still alive.”
‘And work always for the good of the team, listening to others with goodwill, not letting the team be riven by petty politics, cherishing differences and looking after each other. Always being kind. Remember that just one harsh, barbed remark can be costly in human terms. It can take weeks for relationships to recover.
‘Success comes from doing the right thing rather than just doing things right. Thinking about what you want to do, but also who you want to be. Only you can determine the sort of person you become.'
‘I was the second person to focus on the social aspects of computing. let me honour the first: BCS Distinguished Fellow Enid Mumford, an academic, rather than a doer, who was ten years in front of me. She was herself influenced by the great Mary Parker Follett, mother of modern management in America.
‘Progress comes from an ongoing series of small steps rather than some giant leap.
‘We each have personal responsibility to place the human at the heart of technology; and to adhere to all the ethical guidelines of our industry. It would be good to remind ourselves of this with something like the Hippocratic oath for graduating scientists:
“I promise to work for a better world, where science and technology are used in socially responsible ways. I will not use my education for any purpose intended to harm human beings or the environment. I will consider the ethical implications of my work before I take action. I sign this declaration because I recognise that individual responsibility is the first step on the path to peace.”
