Reshma Saujani
speaker
259 appearances
2 recordings
2 series
first heard Apr 2025
last heard Apr 2025
Reshma Saujani’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
And I think the point is, is that we're just presenting these like polar opposite choices when really what we all want is something in the middle. I want to be able to pick my kids up, you know, at school every so often, give them a little hug and a kiss, have some flexibility, not be on the plane all the time. But I want to be able to crush it in the things that I care about.
Love it.
I feel like the way that we've built workplaces, we've set women up to fail, period. You know, and the thing I always think about, Megan, is like, look, we have the most educated workforce of women. Like, 75% of the high school valedictorians are girls, right? Most of those getting their PhDs are girls.
And we have to ask ourselves, why do we have the most educated population of women that have the lowest amount of participation in the labor force? And the reason is, is because when we become moms...
Because of the cost of childcare, because of the lack of availability of childcare, because we just don't make it possible for you to do both, oftentimes women are having to downshift or make choices. And the way we've tried to solve this problem is say, well, the problem is women, right? Like you got to get more confidence. You got to power pose, you know, your way before a meeting.
You got to get a mentor, right? It's all about you're wrong. You're broken. When really it's just structural, right? And what was so amazing about this and the pandemic is I think it gave us a window of what's possible. So, like, if you do have flexibility, if you can take care of your kid when they're sick and still get it on a meeting, right?
If you still can not be set up to fail because the school day is 830 and the work day is 9 to 5, right? If we can actually give people grace and flexibility and give women ownership over their time, right? you will actually see a shift.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. We breastfed in closets. We didn't put our kids' picture on there. We're like, oh, my God, I'm sorry. Completely. Like, I always say, like, you know, Girls Who Code, mostly women work for me. They get pregnant all the time. And we kill it, right? I have built like two of the most fastest growing nonprofits and we live our values.
And so the sense of that, well, you know, you're not going to be productive or you're like, you know, watching Netflix while you're at work. It's just not true. And so we just have to. But there's so much resistance. to change. And I do think that part of that is about having women ask for what they need and are male allies.
You know, one of the things that you've seen really shift in this remote work conversation is a lot of men are saying, okay, great, you want me to come back to work? Dads are saying, you need to support me in my childcare. You need to change your paid leave policies, right? You need to allow me to be a parent and just thrive. Right. But I think that is just absolutely right.
It's like, how do we ask and demand what we need? I mean, you see it even in promotions. Men will not, if they leave the workforce, they will go back and they will not compromise on their salary. Whereas women are like, all right, you want to pay me 20% less? Okay, fine. Thank you. Right.
Well, listen, I love exposing cons. And I think one of the things with all of these things that are in common is one, what do you mean girls can't code? Yes, they can. And they can build incredible things. And what do you mean we can't redesign workplaces for women? Yes, we can. We need to pass child care and paid leave.
And, you know, the work I'm doing on my podcast right now, My So-Called Midlife, was like, I was in that inflection point between Girls Who Code and Moms First. There was no third baby, right? I was seeing wrinkles on my face that I hadn't seen before. My body was changing because of perimenopause. And I was just feeling like my best years are behind me.
And I started working with my monk, Razanath. And that's when I started reading the Bhagavad Gita because I realized like all the things that were holding me back and the things that I were holding on to. And it just opened up such this incredible moment of one, rethinking midlife for women. Because I think the view about midlife is so different for women and men.
And we need to change it because we are living longer than we ever expected. Ever expected. And I don't know if you knew this, but the largest gender pay gap is for women above 50. I have so many friends now who are approaching 50 and who are like, I can't get that promotion. I can't become a partner at that venture fund. I can't start that business.
The way we perceive women, their potential and their opportunity, and I call it the midlife penalty for women, really changes. And so... To me, I think I will continue to do this work, right? I will continue to do this work about women. I have made the realization, though, Megan, we may not win in our lifetimes. Meaning what?
Meaning that I might die with women having less rights than they had when I was born. That we may not see a female president in my lifetime. That your daughters, my nieces, may still be fighting the same fights that we're fighting.
And for me, that was a really hard reality to face in midlife because we went through all the things we sacrificed to our health, our family, and we have to say, God, is it worth it? Like, what is the point? What is the point if we keep dismantling progress? And I think I've realized that probably me, you, were put on this earth just like those suffragettes to just keep hope alive. Keep fighting.
Keep pushing. Because, yeah, that's the point. You lose, you lose, you lose, and then you win. Yes. Right? You lose, you lose, you lose, and then you win.
That is unflappable. I think that's right. And I think you realize, like, I don't care what other people think about me. Like, I'm not doing this. I just, to me, I want to die knowing that I lived my fullest potential. And then I gave back to like, I keep going back to my parents' story, like about the people that sheltered them, that took them in, that fed them.
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