Employees were almost exclusively female
The company was formed by Stephanie Shirley (then 29, and later Dame Stephanie Shirley), who had encountered sexual harassment and multiple gender-biased barriers in her determined development of her talent in mathematics and computing. Shirley is also known as Steve Shirley, the name she adopted sometimes including in cases where using her own (female) name in correspondence was not receiving a reply. The company was taken over 45 years later, with a turnover of UK£379.7 million. By the time Xansa was taken over it had a major presence in India, but not exclusive.
