Reshma Saujani(1975 — ?)
Reshma Saujani
États-Unis
8 min read
American lawyer and activist, founder of Girls Who Code in 2012, an organization aimed at closing the gender gap in technology careers. She also ran for the U.S. Congress and advocates for women's inclusion in tech.
Frequently asked questions
Famous Quotes
« Teach girls bravery, not perfection.»
« We have to socialize our girls to be comfortable with imperfection.»
Key Facts
- Born in 1975 in Chicago to Indian immigrant parents
- Founded Girls Who Code in 2012 to teach girls to code
- First Indian-American woman to run for the U.S. Congress (2010)
- Girls Who Code has trained more than 500,000 young women in the United States and around the world
- Author of the book Brave, Not Perfect (2019)
Works & Achievements
A nonprofit organization founded in New York to introduce girls to computer coding and close the gender gap in tech. It has trained more than 500,000 participants across the United States and several other countries.
Reshma Saujani's first book, in which she urges women to take risks, stand up for themselves, and support other women rather than waiting their turn within male-dominated hierarchical structures.
An introductory coding manual aimed at teenage girls, blending hands-on tutorials with profiles of pioneering women in computing. Widely used in Girls Who Code clubs across the United States.
A TED Talk viewed millions of times in which Reshma Saujani shares her observations on gendered education and calls for bravery and the freedom to fail to be celebrated in girls from the earliest age.
A *New York Times* bestseller in which she develops her central argument: society raises girls to pursue perfection and boys to take risks, with profound consequences for their careers and self-esteem.
A national initiative launched during the COVID-19 pandemic demanding financial compensation for mothers forced out of the workforce. The op-ed was published in the *New York Times* and backed by hundreds of public figures.
A book in which Reshma Saujani analyzes persistent economic inequalities between men and women and proposes a concrete action plan for businesses, governments, and individuals.
Anecdotes
Reshma Saujani's parents were refugees of Indian origin expelled from Uganda by dictator Idi Amin in 1972. Arriving in the United States with nothing, they bet everything on their daughter's education, instilling in her the values of hard work and perseverance. This family history marked by exile deeply shaped Reshma's commitment to inclusion and equal opportunity.
In 2010, Reshma Saujani became the first woman of South Asian descent to run for the U.S. Congress, in New York's 14th congressional district. Although she did not win the election, the campaign took her into New York City schools, where she discovered that computer science classrooms were almost exclusively male — a revelation that led her to found Girls Who Code two years later.
During her school visits on the 2010 campaign trail, Reshma Saujani was struck by a simple observation: computer labs had almost no girls in them. Shocked by this gap, she decided to take concrete action. In 2012, Girls Who Code launched with 20 participants; by 2022, the organization had trained more than 500,000 girls and young women across the United States and around the world.
In her book *Brave, Not Perfect* (2019), Reshma Saujani develops a central idea: girls are taught to be perfect, and boys are taught to be brave. She illustrates this difference through learning to code — when they hit an error, boys persist while girls tend to give up. Her program is designed precisely to reverse this dynamic by celebrating trying, failing, and trying again.
In 2021, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Reshma Saujani launched the Marshall Plan for Moms, a call to governments and businesses to compensate the millions of mothers who were forced to leave their jobs during lockdowns. Drawing on the Marshall Plan of 1948 that rebuilt Europe, this initiative makes the case that women's economic equality cannot wait until a crisis is over.
Primary Sources
We're raising our girls to be perfect, and we're raising our boys to be brave. [...] I want to talk to you about a problem we have with bravery. And I think the solution to it starts with girls learning to code.
There are 1.4 million computing jobs that will be available by 2020, and women are set to fill only 3% of those jobs. We need to change this — and we can, starting today, starting right here.
Mothers are being pushed out of the workforce at an alarming rate. It's not a personal failing; it's a national economic crisis. We need a Marshall Plan for Moms.
For most of my life, I was terrified to try anything that I wasn't sure I could nail. I played it safe, I colored inside the lines, I did everything I was supposed to do. [...] I wasted years of my life doing this.
Key Places
The state where Reshma Saujani was born in 1975, after her parents — refugees from Uganda — settled there. Her childhood in an immigrant family shaped her values of inclusion, resilience, and hard work.
Reshma Saujani earned her law degree at Yale, one of the most prestigious universities in the United States. This rigorous legal training laid the foundation for her career as a lawyer before she turned to activism.
The city where Reshma Saujani built her political career and founded Girls Who Code in 2012. New York is the organization's headquarters and the territory of her 2010 congressional campaign.
The federal capital where Reshma Saujani brought her advocacy to Congress and the White House, pushing for policies promoting gender equality in tech and the workforce.
The capital from which Reshma Saujani's parents were expelled in 1972 during the ethnic purge ordered by Idi Amin. This place of tragic family origin remains central to her identity and her commitment to minority communities.
