Reshma Saujani: Building Equity with Boldness and Code
- Aug 11, 2025
- 3 min read
Reshma Saujani isn’t just shifting the narrative around women in tech—she’s rewriting the code entirely. As the founder of Girls Who Code and the Marshall Plan for Moms, Reshma has emerged as one of the most fearless voices of our time, confronting economic inequality, systemic bias, and the myth of perfection with clarity and courage. Her work transcends advocacy; it is a movement powered by urgency, empathy, and a relentless belief in what women can do when they are given the tools—and the freedom—to lead.
Reshma’s story began in the world of politics, where she once ran for Congress as the first Indian-American woman to do so. Though she lost the race, what she gained was vision. She saw, up close, how few girls were encouraged to lead boldly or pursue careers in science and technology. Determined to change that, she launched Girls Who Code, a national nonprofit aimed at closing the gender gap in technology by teaching girls the skills, confidence, and sisterhood to pursue careers in computing. Since then, the organization has reached over 500 million people globally and empowered hundreds of thousands of girls to dream bigger and code their own futures.
But Reshma didn’t stop at tech. As the COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the devastating impact on working mothers, she saw another gap—this one even more urgent. Millions of women were pushed out of the workforce due to lack of childcare, inflexible work structures, and the unrealistic expectation that women could juggle everything flawlessly. Reshma’s response was not just to empathize, but to act. She founded the Marshall Plan for Moms, a campaign and policy proposal demanding paid leave, affordable childcare, and direct payments to mothers for their invisible labor. Once again, she stepped into the fire where others hesitated, using her voice to call out what had been ignored for too long: that a society that claims to value women must also invest in them.
At the heart of Reshma’s leadership is a deep commitment to truth-telling. She speaks openly about failure, fear, and the toxic pressure to “have it all.” She doesn’t pretend to be perfect—she redefines what leadership looks like by embracing vulnerability and imperfection as strengths. Her bestselling book, Brave, Not Perfect, challenges women to let go of people-pleasing and instead choose boldness. Because as Reshma reminds us, perfection isn’t the goal—progress is. And progress only happens when we dare to be brave.
Reshma’s voice is powerful because it is rooted in lived experience. She understands the intersection of gender, race, class, and opportunity—and she uses her platform to lift up the voices of those too often left behind. Whether she’s testifying before Congress, writing op-eds in major publications, or speaking to high school girls in underfunded districts, her message remains the same: women deserve more. Not later, not when they’ve “earned it,” but now.
What makes Reshma unstoppable is her refusal to accept the status quo. Where others see obstacles, she sees design flaws. She challenges systems to evolve—not just for inclusion, but for equity. She urges leaders to build with empathy, to listen to women, and to stop asking them to choose between ambition and care, career and motherhood, leadership and rest. She is not just advocating for a seat at the table; she’s advocating for a redesign of the entire room.
As we honor Women’s Equality Day, Reshma Saujani exemplifies what it means to use courage as a leadership tool. Her brand of leadership doesn’t shout to be heard—it resonates because it is rooted in truth, justice, and a deep love for women’s potential. She speaks with clarity, not compromise. She organizes with vision, not vanity.
And she leads with a mission to ensure that no girl, no mother, and no woman is left behind.
Reshma Saujani’s impact is measured not only in programs launched or policies proposed, but in the millions of women who have felt seen, heard, and empowered because she chose to speak up. Her voice is not just a call to action—it’s a mirror, reflecting what each of us is capable of when we lead with conviction, choose courage over comfort, and code a future where equity is not the exception, but the expectation.
In a world that often tells women to wait their turn, Reshma reminds us that our time is now. And with voices like hers leading the charge, the future is not just female—it is fearless.
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