Sometimes you must create the spaces you cannot find.
I’ve followed this pursuit for nearly a decade — first with Cafe Robot, to create non-awkward tech meetups. Later came Female Freelance Developers, born from referral requests I couldn’t answer. Then Tech Imposters Anonymous, a platform for honest confessions about not feeling "good enough" in tech. F3 Studio is the next chapter.
After facing a redundancy only months after becoming a mother, I discovered that there is not only a "glass ceiling". There is also a "glass door" — making it unbelievably hard to get back to a new job in tech while having new responsibilities.
Facing blanketed rejections for wanting to work on a 36 hours contract, getting told that I will "get my spark back in a couple of years" when I was critical towards hustle working conditions, and having to invest weeks of preparation and studies for every single job application next to childcare, I hit a wall.
I reached for inspiration, and started reading the autobiography "Let it go" by my personal hero Dame Stephanie Shirley. Many parts of her life and accomplishments are exceptional, but especially the beginnings of her entrepreneurial journey struck a cord with me.
After hitting the glass ceiling at her previous employments, she founded her company "Freelance Programmers" in 1962 with a capital of £6. Her "mad" idea: Those who worked for her would all be women, employed on a freelance basis and working from home. Following her ambition — providing careers for women with dependents — she tapped into the ignored talent pool of highly skilled programmers who had to "retire" after having children, as most companies were "far too rigid and male dominated to adapt their ways of working to suit such employees' convenience".
"Freelance Programmers" would turn into "F International", where Shirley started an adjacent consultancy firm called "F2". Her life story doesn't fit into a paragraph or two, but Stephanie Shirley ended up becoming a technology pioneer, philanthropist and successful social entrepreneur, revolutionising concepts such as flexible working models and shared equity.
Her dedication and boldness inspired me to start the company that I wanted to get hired by, myself. It helped me believe that there is a place for us, and that I can pry open that glass door, but simply need to try a different angle. To honour her legacy, I gave it the name — F3 Studio.