Rejection, Politics & Paid Family Leave in the USA (ft. Reshma Saujani)

In Episode 12, Erin interviews Reshma Saujani, founder of GirlsWhoCode and MomsFirst, an activist and leader with over a decade of experience advocating for women & girls empowerment. In this interview, Erin asks Reshma about being the first Indian American woman to run for U.S. Congress, getting rejected from Yale Law School (but persisting and eventually getting in!), founding GirlsWhoCode and MomsFirst (organizations that have impacted 500,000+ women across the world), paid family leave, childcare affordability, feminism, motherhood penalty, and more (including our love for dogs!).

➞ In this episode:

0:00 Meet Reshma!

2:22 Reshma’s Childhood + Background (& dogs!)

4:41 Growing up the daughter of African/Indian refugees

6:13 School bullies, immigrant parents & growing up as a minority

9:30 Rejection + Yale Law School

19:33 Why we should stop talking about “Imposter Syndrome”

23:23 Current feminist wave

27:37 Running for public office in NYC (and losing)

34:09 Starting GirlsWhoCode

35:50 What is MomsFirst?

38:35 Paid Family Leave in the US

41:22 Why we “don’t love moms”

58:52 Taking care of mental health

1:00:00 PaidLeave.ai

1:03:51 Advice with Reshma + Erin

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↳ Follow Reshma on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@reshmasaujani

↳ Follow Reshma on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reshmasaujani

↳ Check out GirlsWhoCode! https://girlswhocode.com/

↳ Check out MomsFirst! https://momsfirst.us/

↳ Need some help? Write to us for a chance to have your question answered (anonymously) on the show: https://bit.ly/nokwtd