Dame Stephanie Shirley: Why do ambitious women have flat heads?

Translator: Paula S Reviewer: Linda Magáthová

When I wrote my memoir,

Keď som písala svoje pamäte,

the publishers were really confused.

vydavatelia boli skutočne zmätení.

Was it about me as a child refugee,

Boli o mne, ako detskom utečencovi,

or as a woman who set up a high-tech software company back in the 1960s,

alebo o žene, ktorá založila high-tech softvérovú firmu v 60. rokoch,

one that went public

ktorá sa zverejnila

and eventually employed over 8,500 people?

a napokon zamestnala viac ako 8 500 ľudí?

Or was it as a mother of an autistic child?

Alebo boli o matke autistického dieťaťa?

Or as a philanthropist that's now given away serious money?

Alebo filantropovi, ktorý veľkoryso dáva množstvo peňazí?

Well, it turns out, I'm all of these.

Ukázalo sa, že som všetko z toho.

So let me tell you my story.

Poviem vám svoj príbeh.

All that I am stems from when I got onto a train in Vienna,

Môj príbeh začal, keď som nastúpila na vlak vo Viedni,

part of the Kindertransport that saved nearly 10,000 Jewish children

časť Kindertransportu, ktorý zachránil takmer 10 000 židovských detí

from Nazi Europe.

z nacistickej Európy.

I was five years old, clutching the hand of my nine-year-old sister

Mala som 5 rokov, zvierala som ruku svojej 9-ročnej sestry

and had very little idea as to what was going on.

a nechápala som, čo sa okolo mňa deje.

"What is England and why am I going there?"

„Čo je Anglicko a prečo tam idem?“

I'm only alive because so long ago, I was helped by generous strangers.

Žijem jedine preto, že raz dávno mi pomohli štedrí neznámi.

I was lucky, and doubly lucky to be later reunited

Mala som šťastie a to dvakrát – lebo som sa neskôr znovu

with my birth parents.

vrátila k svojim rodičom.

But, sadly, I never bonded with them again.

Ale, bohužiaľ, už som si k nim nevytvorila znovu puto.

But I've done more in the seven decades since that miserable day

Ale počas tých siedmych dekád, od toho hrozného dňa,

when my mother put me on the train

keď ma moja mama nasadila na vlak,

som urobila viac, než by som pokladala za možné.

than I would ever have dreamed possible.

And I love England, my adopted country,

A milujem Anglicko, moju adoptívnu krajinu,

with a passion that perhaps only someone who has lost their human rights can feel.

vášňou, ktorú možno môže cítiť len ten, kto už stratil svoje ľudské práva.

I decided to make mine a life that was worth saving.

Rozhodla som sa urobiť svoj život hodným zachránenia.

And then, I just got on with it.

A nejak mi to ostalo.

(Laughter)

(smiech)

Let me take you back to the early 1960s.

Vráťme sa späť do skorých šesťdesiatych rokov.

To get past the gender issues of the time,

Aby som obišla rodové problémy v tom čase,

I set up my own software house at one of the first such startups in Britain.

založila som svoj softvérový podnik,

jeden z prvých takých startupov v Británii.

But it was also a company of women, a company for women,

Bola to tiež firma žien, firma pre ženy,

an early social business.

skoré sociálne podnikanie.

And people laughed at the very idea because software, at that time,

Ľudia sa smiali už na samotnej myšlienke, lebo softvér, v tom čase,

bol dávaný zadarmo s hardvérom.

was given away free with hardware.

Nikto by si nekúpil softvér, a určite nie od ženy.

Nobody would buy software, certainly not from a woman.

Although women were then coming out of the universities with decent degrees,

Hoci ženy v tom čase vychádzali z univerzít so slušnými diplomami,

there was a glass ceiling to our progress.

náš úspech mal sklenený strop.

And I'd hit that glass ceiling too often,

A ja som do toho stropu udierala príliš často

and I wanted opportunities for women.

a chcela som možnosti pre ženy.

I recruited professionally qualified women who'd left the industry on marriage,

Zamestnala som profesionálne kvalifikované ženy, ktoré opustili odbor, keď sa vydali

alebo keď čakali prvé dieťa,

or when their first child was expected

and structured them into a home-working organization.

a usporiadala som ich do organizácie, pracujúcej z domu.

We pioneered the concept of women going back into the workforce

Boli sme priekopníčky v myšlienke návrate žien do práce

po pauze v kariére.

after a career break.

We pioneered all sorts of new, flexible work methods:

Boli sme priekopníčky v množstve nových, flexibilných pracovných metód:

job shares, profit-sharing, and eventually, co-ownership

zdieľanie práce, zdieľanie zisku a napokon spoločného vlastníctva,

when I took a quarter of the company into the hands of the staff

keď som dala štvrtinu firmy do rúk zamestnancom,

čo nestálo nikoho nič, len mňa.

at no cost to anyone but me.

For years, I was the first woman this, or the only woman that.

Roky som bola prvá žena v tom a jediná v tamtom.

And in those days, I couldn't work on the stock exchange,

A v tých časoch som nemohla pracovať na burze,

I couldn't drive a bus or fly an airplane.

nemohla som riadiť autobus či lietadlo.

Indeed, I couldn't open a bank account without my husband's permission.

Skutočne, nemohla som ani otvoriť bankový účet bez povolenia manžela.

My generation of women fought the battles for the right to work

Moja generácia žien bojovala za práva žien pracovať

and the right for equal pay.

a za ich právo na rovnakú mzdu.

Nobody really expected much from people at work or in society

Nikto veľa neočakával od ľudí v práci, či v spoločnosti,

pretože všetky očakávania

because all the expectations then

were about home and family responsibilities.

boli o povinnostiach doma a v rodine.

And I couldn't really face that,

A ja som sa na to nemohla pozerať,

so I started to challenge the conventions of the time,

tak som začala vzdorovať konvenciám tých čias,

even to the extent of changing my name from "Stephanie" to "Steve"

dokonca som si v obchodných správach zmenila meno

zo Stephanie na Steve,

in my business development letters,

so as to get through the door before anyone realized

aby som tak prekĺzla skôr, než si niekto uvedomí,

that he was a she.

že on je ona.

(Laughter)

(smiech)

Moja firma, nazvaná Freelance Programátori – a presne to sme boli

My company, called Freelance Programmers, and that's precisely what it was,

couldn't have started smaller: on the dining room table,

nemohla začať v menšom: na jedálenskom stole,

and financed by the equivalent of 100 dollars in today's terms,

financovaná dnešným ekvivalentom 100 dolárov,

and financed by my labor and by borrowing against the house.

a financovaná mojou prácou a na pôžičku na dom.

My interests were scientific, the market was commercial --

Moje záujmy boli vedecké, trh bol komerčný –

things such as payroll, which I found rather boring.

veci ako výplatná páska, čo ma nudilo.

So I had to compromise with operational research work,

Takže som to musela vyvažovať operačnou výskumnou prácou,

which had the intellectual challenge that interested me

ktorá bola pre mňa zaujímavou intelektuálnou výzvou

and the commercial value that was valued by the clients:

a komerčnou hodnotou, na ktorej záležalo klientom:

things like scheduling freight trains,

veci ako plánovanie nákladných vlakov,

rozpisy autobusov, kopa a kopa kontrol stavu zásob.

time-tabling buses, stock control, lots and lots of stock control.

And eventually, the work came in.

A napokon práca prišla.

We disguised the domestic and part-time nature of the staff

Zakrývali sme prácu z domu a polovičné úvazky tým,

by offering fixed prices, one of the very first to do so.

že sme ponúkli fixné ceny – ako jedny z prvých.

And who would have guessed that the programming

A kto by si pomyslel, že naprogramovanie

of the black box flight recorder of Supersonic Concord

čiernej skrinky pre Supersonic Concord

would have been done by a bunch of women working in their own homes.

bude spravené partiou žien, pracujúcich z domu.

(Applause)

(potlesk)

All we used was a simple "trust the staff" approach

Stačilo jednoducho dôverovať zamestnancom

and a simple telephone.

a obyčajný telefón.

We even used to ask job applicants, "Do you have access to a telephone?"

Záujemcov o prácu sme sa pýtali: „Máte prístup k telefónu?“

Jeden z prvých projektov bolo vyvinúť softvérové štandardy

An early project was to develop software standards

on management control protocols.

pre protokoly kontroly manažmentu.

And software was and still is a maddeningly hard-to-control activity,

Softvér bol a stále je šialene ťažko kontrolovateľná činnosť,

so that was enormously valuable.

takže to bolo nesmierne dôležité.

We used the standards ourselves,

Samé sme tieto štandardy využívali,

we were even paid to update them over the years,

boli sme aj zaplatené, aby sme ich postupne vyvíjali,

and eventually, they were adopted by NATO.

a napokon ich prijalo aj NATO.

Our programmers -- remember, only women,

Naše programátorky – všetko ženy,

including gay and transgender --

vrátane gay a transgender –

worked with pencil and paper to develop flowcharts

s ceruzkou a papierom kreslili vývojové diagramy,

defining each task to be done.

definujúc všetky úlohy.

And they then wrote code, usually machine code,

A potom písali kód, obvykle strojový kód,

sometimes binary code,

niekedy binárny,

which was then sent by mail to a data center

ktorý sa potom posielal poštou do dátového centra,

to be punched onto paper tape or card

kde bol vyrazený na papierovú pásku alebo karty

and then re-punched, in order to verify it.

a znova vyrazený, aby bol overený.

Toto všetko prv, kým sme sa vôbec dostali k počítaču.

All this, before it ever got near a computer.

That was programming in the early 1960s.

Také bolo programovanie začiatkom 60. rokov.

In 1975, 13 years from startup,

V roku 1975, 13 rokov po založení,

equal opportunity legislation came in in Britain

v Británii prišla legislatíva rovnakých možností,

and that made it illegal to have our pro-female policies.

a tak sa naša pro-ženská politika stala nelegálnou.

And as an example of unintended consequences,

Ako príklad nečakaných dôsledkov,

my female company had to let the men in.

moja ženská firma musela prijať mužov.

(smiech)

(Laughter)

Keď som začala svoju ženskú firmu,

When I started my company of women,

the men said, "How interesting, because it only works because it's small."

muži hovorili: „Toto funguje len preto, že je to taká malá firma.“

And later, as it became sizable, they accepted, "Yes, it is sizable now,

A neskôr, keď narastala, uznali: „Áno, je rozsiahlejšia,

ale bez strategického významu.“

but of no strategic interest."

A neskôr, keď to bola firma ohodnotená viac ako 3 miliardami dolárov,

And later, when it was a company valued at over three billion dollars,

and I'd made 70 of the staff into millionaires,

a zo 70 členov firmy sa stali milionárky,

they sort of said, "Well done, Steve!"

povedali zhruba: „Výborne, Steve!“

(Laughter)

(smiech)

(Applause)

(potlesk)

You can always tell ambitious women by the shape of our heads:

Ambiciózne ženy môžete vždy rozoznať podľa tvaru našich hláv:

They're flat on top for being patted patronizingly.

Sú navrchu ploché z toho, ako ich blahosklonne poklepávajú.

(Laughter) (Applause)

(smiech) (potlesk)

And we have larger feet to stand away from the kitchen sink.

A máme väčšie chodidlá, aby sme stáli ďalej od šporáka.

(smiech)

(Laughter)

Let me share with you two secrets of success:

Poviem vám dve tajomstvá úspechu:

Surround yourself with first-class people and people that you like;

Obklopte sa prvotriednymi ľuďmi a ľuďmi, ktorých máte radi;

and choose your partner very, very carefully.

a veľmi, veľmi opatrne si vyberte partnera.

Pretože keď som minule povedala: „Môj manžel je anjel“,

Because the other day when I said, "My husband's an angel,"

a woman complained -- "You're lucky," she said,

iná žena si vzdychla – „Máš šťastie,“ povedala,

"mine's still alive."

„môj je ešte nažive.“

(Laughter)

(smiech)

Keby bol úspech ľahký, všetci by sme boli milionármi.

If success were easy, we'd all be millionaires.

Ale v mojom prípade to prišlo uprostred rodinnej drámy a krízy.

But in my case, it came in the midst of family trauma and indeed, crisis.

Our late son, Giles, was an only child, a beautiful, contented baby.

Náš zosnulý syn, Giles, bol jedináčik, krásne spokojné bábätko.

And then, at two and a half,

A potom, keď mal dva a pol roka,

like a changeling in a fairy story,

akoby zo zlého sna,

he lost the little speech that he had

stratil tú trochu reči, ktorú ovládal,

a zmenil sa na divoké, nezvládnuteľné batoľa.

and turned into a wild, unmanageable toddler.

Not the terrible twos;

Nebolo to len obdobie;

he was profoundly autistic and he never spoke again.

bol silno autistický a už nikdy neprehovoril.

Giles was the first resident in the first house of the first charity that I set up

Giles bol prvým obyvateľom prvého domu prvej charity, ktorú som založila

to pioneer services for autism.

na vytvorenie služieb pre autizmus.

And then there's been a groundbreaking Prior's Court school

Potom prišla priekopnícka škola Prior's Court

for pupils with autism

pre deti s autizmom,

and a medical research charity, again, all for autism.

charita pre medicínsky výskum, znova pre autizmus.

Because whenever I found a gap in services, I tried to help.

Pretože kdekoľvek som našla medzeru v službách, snažila som sa pomôcť.

I like doing new things and making new things happen.

Rada robím nové veci a chcem, aby sa veci diali.

And I've just started a three-year think tank for autism.

A práve som začala trojročný „think tank“ pre autizmus.

A aby časť môjho bohatstva išla naspäť do priemyslu, z ktorého pochádza,

And so that some of my wealth does go back to the industry from which it stems,

I've also founded the Oxford Internet Institute

založila som Oxford Internet Institute

a iné IT podniky.

and other IT ventures.

The Oxford Internet Institute focuses not on the technology,

Oxford Internet Institute sa nevenuje len technológii,

but on the social, economic, legal and ethical issues of the Internet.

ale aj sociálnym, ekonomickým, právnym a etickým problémom internetu.

Giles died unexpectedly 17 years ago now.

Giles umrel nečakane pred 17 rokmi.

And I have learned to live without him,

Naučila som sa žiť bez neho,

and I have learned to live without his need of me.

a naučila som sa žiť bez jeho potreby mňa.

Philanthropy is all that I do now.

Teraz sa venujem už len filantropii.

I need never worry about getting lost

Nemusím sa obávať, že by som sa raz stratila,

because several charities would quickly come and find me.

lebo by ma hneď rýchlo našlo niekoľko charít.

(Laughter)

(smiech)

It's one thing to have an idea for an enterprise,

Je jedna vec mať nápad na podnikanie,

but as many people in this room will know,

ale ako mnoho z vás vie,

prebiť sa je veľmi náročné

making it happen is a very difficult thing

a vyžaduje neobyčajnú energiu, sebadôveru a odhodlanie,

and it demands extraordinary energy, self-belief and determination,

odvahu riskovať rodinu a domov

the courage to risk family and home,

and a 24/7 commitment that borders on the obsessive.

a záväzok na 24/7, ktorý hraničí s posadnutosťou.

So it's just as well that I'm a workaholic.

Takže je dobre, že som workoholik.

I believe in the beauty of work when we do it properly and in humility.

Verím v krásu práce, keď ju robíme poctivo a pokorne.

Práca nie je niečo, čo robím, keď by som radšej bola niekde inde.

Work is not just something I do when I'd rather be doing something else.

We live our lives forward.

Žijeme naše životy.

So what has all that taught me?

Takže čo ma toto všetko naučilo?

Zistila som, že zajtrajšok nikdy nebude ako dnešok,

I learned that tomorrow's never going to be like today,

and certainly nothing like yesterday.

a rozhodne nie ako včerajšok.

And that made me able to cope with change,

A vďaka tomu sa viem vyrovnať so zmenou.

indeed, eventually to welcome change,

Áno, časom zmenu uvítať,

though I'm told I'm still very difficult.

hoci mi vravia, že som stále veľmi náročná.

Thank you very much.

Ďakujem.

(Applause)

(potlesk)