By Dame Stephanie Shirley
Complete the gaps in the video excerpt with the words in bold below:
pioneered labour permission flexible glass ceiling
professionally qualified get through gender face very
(2:10) …Let me take you back to the early 1960s. To get past the 1. ……….. issues of the time, I set up my own software house, one of the first such start-ups in Britain. But it was also a company of women, a company for women, an early social business.
And people laughed at the 2. ……. idea, because software at that time was given away free with hardware. Nobody would buy software, certainly not from a woman. Although women were then coming out of the universities with decent degrees, there was a 3. …………. to our progress.
And I’d hit that glass ceiling too often. And I wanted opportunities for women. I recruited 4. ……………. women who’d left the industry on marriage or when their first child was expected, and structured them into a home-working organisation.
And we 5. ………….. the concept of women going back into the workforce after a career break. We pioneered all sorts of new, 6. …………. work methods, job shares, profit sharing, and eventually, co-ownership. When I took a quarter of the company into the hands of the staff at no cost to anyone but me.
For years, I was the first woman this, or the only woman that. And in those days, I couldn’t work on a stock exchange, I couldn’t drive a bus or fly an aeroplane. Indeed, I couldn’t open a bank account without my husband’s 7. ………… .
My generation of women fought the battles for the right to work and the right for equal pay. Nobody really expected much from people at work or in society, because all the expectations then were about home and family responsibilities. And I couldn’t really 8. ……. that, and so started to challenge 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 9. ………….. the door before anyone realised that he was a she. My company, called Freelance Programmers, and that’s precisely what it was, couldn’t have started smaller, on the dining room table, and financed by the equivalent of 100 dollars in today’s terms, and financed, really, by my 10. ………… and by borrowing against the house. (…)
Now watch the video and check your answers:
Key: 1. gender; 2. very; 3. glass ceiling; 4. professionally qualified; 5. pioneered; 6. flexible; 7. permission; 8. face; 9. get through; 10. labour
Glossary
- to stem from – to originate from; to be caused by something
- to clutch – to grab or hold something tightly, often because of fear, urgency, or strong emotion
- to punch – to make holes in paper tape or punch cards to represent data or computer instructions
- to pat – to touch or tap something lightly and gently, usually with your hand
- contented – happy, calm, and satisfied
- changeling – (especially in stories) a baby who is secretly used to take the place of another baby
Practice makes perfect
Read about the first problem in the article:
https://www.inc.com/alison-green/what-to-do-when-a-job-candidate-treats-men-and-women-differently
and answer the questions below:
- Why might the candidate address the two interviewers differently?
- Do you think this is necessarily sexism? Why or why not?
- What other behaviors might suggest bias in a job interview?
- What should the hiring manager do next?
Discuss
- Do you think gender discrimination today is usually open and obvious, or subtle and indirect?
- Are there still glass ceilings in some industries today?
- Do you think companies today still need special policies to support women in their careers?
- (Why) do you think International Women’s Day is still important today?
- What achievements of women in history or business inspire you the most?
- Do you think society has fully recognised women’s contributions to science, technology, and business? Why or why not?
Watch and Revise!
Ambitious Women
Breaking Barriers & Biases
https://www.cloud.worldwideschool.pl/index.php/s/KLBn7QMwkBgzzdr
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