E149: How I Taught Millions Of Women The Most Important Skill: Girls Who Code Founder: Reshma Saujani

The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett

FlightStory

Society & Culture, Business, Education

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 June 2022

⏱️ 79 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Reshma is the founder of Girls Who Code, one of the most influential non-profits in the world which has introduced millions of women to coding and the tech industry. She is also the author of Pay Up, a book about how to get women further in the workplace.

Reshma was initially a prophet of the thinking that women could have it all, if only they tried twice as hard as everyone else they could achieve anything they wanted to. Now, she’s changed her mind. Trying to run an organisation with over 500 employees while looking after a young family full-time simply proved too much. Women simply have too much stacked against them having to juggle work and family life to properly pursue their careers without special consideration.

What really stands out about Reshma is the fact that having built an enterprise that was on its way to changing the world, she had the humility to change her mind about major parts of her philosophy. Reshma’s story is one of how to realise and bounce back from your mistakes, no matter who you are or how far you’ve come. It takes a lot of courage to do that, but courage is something that Reshma has never had in short supply.

Topics:

Growing up as an immigrant
University dept
Running for congress
Starting Girls Who Code
The difficult parts of building girls who code
What would you have done differently?
Fixing the system not the women
How is your mental health?
How do you decide what to say yes or no to?
Empowering women in a practical way
What does success look like in your future?
The last guests question

Reshma:

https://www.instagram.com/reshmasaujani/

https://twitter.com/reshmasaujani

Reshma’s book:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pay-Up-Future-Women-Different/dp/1982191570

Girls Who Code:

https://girlswhocode.com/

Watch the episodes on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheDiaryOfACEO/videos

Sponsors:

Huel - https://my.huel.com/Steven

Myenergi - https://bit.ly/3oeWGnl

Vodafone Business - https://bit.ly/3NIM35n

https://bit.ly/3AuPKsA

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I gotta figure out how to teach every single girl to code.
0:03.1	That's how the world's gonna be a better place.
0:05.4	Founder of CEO of Girls Who Code.
0:07.8	Best-selling author, Rishma Suryan.
0:10.4	I was often bullied at school,
0:12.2	or house-begetter spray-paying to go back to your own country.
0:14.9	And my mother just takes a look at me and she's just crying.
0:17.7	And I remember thinking,
0:19.4	I will never be silent.
0:22.0	So I ran for Congress.
0:23.9	The New York Times finally acknowledged my race
0:25.5	and they sent a reporter.
0:26.6	They were knocking on doors,
0:27.7	we had young girls having my poster up.
0:29.5	She then decides to write a story about my shoes.
0:32.0	Yeah, fuck.
0:33.1	I'm not buying into that bullshit.
0:35.8	I wasn't gonna let failure break me.
0:38.1	When I saw a girls who code,
0:39.4	0.4% of girls were interested in coding.
0:41.6	And then we ended up with 10,000 girls who code clubs.
0:45.0	And then we exploded in India and in the UK.
	...

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