[SIGCIS-Members] Steve Shirley obit

Mon Sep 15 18:50:04 PDT 2025

Regarding Mary Berners-Lee, she did leave full-time work when Tim was born, but she told me she actually kept programming as a freelancer for people who knew her work at Ferranti:

“We married in ‘54, and then I worked until May ‘55, and Tim was born in June ‘55. After that, I did do some cottage-industry programming. If somebody had a nice, neat little project, I could program at home and then go to a computer somewhere to test it. That was good fun! … And it’s a tremendous shock, having been professional, to be at home as a mum; and it’s nice to go into the adult world occasionally. Yes, I did find it quite difficult. But in those days, they certainly felt it was better for a mum to be at home with the baby.”

So there was some middle ground between full-time work and full-time motherhood, but I agree with Mar that that flexibility was mainly available to women at the upper end of the computer workforce.

American women I spoke to said that employers would terminate pregnant employees for insurance reasons (i.e., the company didn’t want to get sued if something happened to the unborn child). If that was true (and not just employers passing the blame for firing women), I wonder when and how those insurance policies were changed?

Full interview transcript for the Berners-Lee interview is here:
<https://ethw.org/Oral-History:Mary_Lee_Berners-Lee#Cottage_Computer_Programming>
Oral-History:Mary Lee Berners-Lee<https://ethw.org/Oral-History:Mary_Lee_Berners-Lee#Cottage_Computer_Programming>
ethw.org<https://ethw.org/Oral-History:Mary_Lee_Berners-Lee#Cottage_Computer_Programming>
[logo.png]<https://ethw.org/Oral-History:Mary_Lee_Berners-Lee#Cottage_Computer_Programming>

Dr. Janet Abbate
Professor, Science, Technology and Society
Virginia Tech
liberalarts.vt.edu/sts
Co-director, VT National Capital Region STS program
Author, Inventing the Internet and Recoding Gender

On Sep 15, 2025, at 5:13 PM, Brian E Carpenter via Members <members at lists.sigcis.org> wrote:

Mar,

Thanks for that. May I just comment on one point? You write

"Shirley’s first major “help wanted” advertisement for her new company,
published in the Times of London in 1964, noted that her company
had “many opportunities for retired programmers (female) to work
part-time at home.” In this era, the term “retirement” was used to
describe the situation women, who were as young as their twenties,
found themselves in when they were all but required to leave the workforce
upon getting married (fig. 13.1)."

I very much doubt that the requirement to leave work upon marriage was imposed by the companies, especially by ICL which is the example in Fig. 13.1. I have two counter-examples, as it happens: Ruth Engleback (née Thomson) who was hired by BTM (which became ICT and then ICL) in 1954, then married, but only left her job in 1959 when she had her first child [1]; and my own late wife who joined EELM (which became part of ICL) in 1967 _after_ her first marriage, becoming a programming team leader; she left in 1969 for a better job.

I suspect that Mary Berners-Lee (née Woods) was an earlier counter-example. She left Ferranti when "her first child was born" according to Wikipedia. (The fact that he grew up to invent the Web is beside the point.)

The 1960s was a time of rapid social change in the UK, and the societal expectation that women should quit work upon marriage was also changing rapidly, but came at least as much from families as it did from employers.

I don't mean in the least to downplay Steve Shirley's achievement, but the context was one of social change. Increasingly, it was the first child, not marriage, that forced a career break. Of course, provision for maternity leave was non-existent in those days.

[1] https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdoi.org%2F10.1109%2FMAHC.2020.2990647&data=05%7C02%7Cabbate%40vt.edu%7C154e46e6e1d049b38fee08ddf49cdf60%7C6095688410ad40fa863d4f32c1e3a37a%7C0%7C0%7C638935676800062053%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=JP4LKsDKMdVEEDMxRRZeO0Wg6fAlJErrlHUJ9bJlAxI%3D&reserved=0

Regards/Ngā mihi
  Brian Carpenter

On 16-Sep-25 07:36, Hicks, Mar (avg5bd) via Members wrote:
Hi all,
Agreed—Shirley was a very interesting player in the software industry. She focused on hiring many of the women being forced out of their jobs in computing in the 1960s and onward, as I talk about in/Programmed Inequality <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmitpress.mit.edu%2F9780262535182%2Fprogrammed-inequality%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cabbate%40vt.edu%7C154e46e6e1d049b38fee08ddf49cdf60%7C6095688410ad40fa863d4f32c1e3a37a%7C0%7C0%7C638935676800083898%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=E9FTyKGefO9%2Fd3uFABuUuXEVru6tLOKV%2B3xb97YH28Y%3D&reserved=0>/.
If you’re interested in reading more about Shirley and the gender and labor dynamics at her company, a preprint of my recent chapter in Janet Abbate and Stephanie Dick’s new edited collection is below. Notably, Shirley saw the broad societal importance of work from home accommodations in high tech long before most others in the industry: https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmarhicks.com%2Fwriting%2FHicks-BabyAndBlackBox.pdf&data=05%7C02%7Cabbate%40vt.edu%7C154e46e6e1d049b38fee08ddf49cdf60%7C6095688410ad40fa863d4f32c1e3a37a%7C0%7C0%7C638935676800100737%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=UR5Js1lroT0eAc73xxe9DsQzuvrkVq5cpoCUHOrThcc%3D&reserved=0 <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmarhicks.com%2Fwriting%2FHicks-BabyAndBlackBox.pdf&data=05%7C02%7Cabbate%40vt.edu%7C154e46e6e1d049b38fee08ddf49cdf60%7C6095688410ad40fa863d4f32c1e3a37a%7C0%7C0%7C638935676800125329%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=0A%2F6tiu77jc96eJ%2F%2BSOrGWZGAkUXxgKhtL3cFTWalJ8%3D&reserved=0>
For a 3 min summary on bsky, see here:
https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbsky.app%2Fprofile%2Fhistoftech.bsky.social%2Fpost%2F3lx2veouoa22o&data=05%7C02%7Cabbate%40vt.edu%7C154e46e6e1d049b38fee08ddf49cdf60%7C6095688410ad40fa863d4f32c1e3a37a%7C0%7C0%7C638935676800153526%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=ScLVLWfTapZK%2B6dhy4SsXm2W4BARGBqp96bagC7Y%2B3k%3D&reserved=0 <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbsky.app%2Fprofile%2Fhistoftech.bsky.social%2Fpost%2F3lx2veouoa22o&data=05%7C02%7Cabbate%40vt.edu%7C154e46e6e1d049b38fee08ddf49cdf60%7C6095688410ad40fa863d4f32c1e3a37a%7C0%7C0%7C638935676800178600%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=HX7rIWQLPb23o1XnnuDtBq1sxcKnOUZUcojEgo9PXhU%3D&reserved=0>
She definitely had a long, fascinating, and important life.
Best,
Mar
________________________
Mar Hicks
Associate Professor
School of Data Science
University of Virginia
marhicks at virginia.edu
marhicks.com <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmarhicks.com%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cabbate%40vt.edu%7C154e46e6e1d049b38fee08ddf49cdf60%7C6095688410ad40fa863d4f32c1e3a37a%7C0%7C0%7C638935676800204723%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Y7eQC%2BI8l7dC%2B1IgYPSgeJ8Kmee%2FXbtayPvIObIMdNE%3D&reserved=0>
Research Affiliate,Centre for Democracy and Technology <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mctd.ac.uk%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cabbate%40vt.edu%7C154e46e6e1d049b38fee08ddf49cdf60%7C6095688410ad40fa863d4f32c1e3a37a%7C0%7C0%7C638935676800230769%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=%2FCWr58q%2FKSZ5XEshTcaA7Y6UZSaW3Nlf7zOfezg%2FCKo%3D&reserved=0>, University of Cambridge
Member, Scholars' Council,Center for Critical Internet Inquiry <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.c2i2.ucla.edu%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cabbate%40vt.edu%7C154e46e6e1d049b38fee08ddf49cdf60%7C6095688410ad40fa863d4f32c1e3a37a%7C0%7C0%7C638935676800256073%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=HHo3udL1ugxdn47hzGPnb5den0wtN2VJnRoP92%2Bs8hU%3D&reserved=0>, UCLA
Associate Editor,/IEEE Annals of the History of Computing <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.computer.org%2Fcsdl%2Fmagazine%2Fan&data=05%7C02%7Cabbate%40vt.edu%7C154e46e6e1d049b38fee08ddf49cdf60%7C6095688410ad40fa863d4f32c1e3a37a%7C0%7C0%7C638935676800281999%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=eP4Ee40asGkQ4nZ4wOdKKp98AOXHU%2FPdZrSM6jg1hfA%3D&reserved=0>/ (feel free to ask me about submitting an article if you work on a topic related to computing history)
Books:
/Programmed Inequality <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmitpress.mit.edu%2Fbooks%2Fprogrammed-inequality&data=05%7C02%7Cabbate%40vt.edu%7C154e46e6e1d049b38fee08ddf49cdf60%7C6095688410ad40fa863d4f32c1e3a37a%7C0%7C0%7C638935676800307399%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=p8kN%2FoGcltr1QrzQufiygbpeV2nK%2FY43MYQw%2FZB%2F9vU%3D&reserved=0>//: How Britain Discarded Women Technologists and Lost Its Edge in Computing/(MIT Press, 2017)
/Your Computer Is On Fire <https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmitpress.mit.edu%2Fbooks%2Fyour-computer-fire&data=05%7C02%7Cabbate%40vt.edu%7C154e46e6e1d049b38fee08ddf49cdf60%7C6095688410ad40fa863d4f32c1e3a37a%7C0%7C0%7C638935676800332885%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=dyL1MUOy7FCMlFwGdILcjUzvgluE6Xt9XDKCgA95O%2FA%3D&reserved=0>/// (MIT Press, 2021)
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