While visiting schools during a campaign for United States Congress, lawyer and entrepreneur Reshma Saujani noticed one shocking fact: The computer science classrooms were overwhelmingly male, despite early computing being mostly a women's field. In 2012, to bring girls back into the coding world, Reshma founded Girls Who Code with just 20 girls in the program. By 2020, Girls Who Code had reached over half a billion students across the world and taught 400,000 girls in the United States. But after the pandemic hit, Reshma shifted gears and locked into supporting moms.
Successes Before Motherhood
Before becoming a mother in 2015, Reshma had a career deeply marked by ambition and career pivots. Her early career was in law, public service, and finance. By the time she hit 33, she was a corporate lawyer on Wall Street. A pivot in 2010 led her to run for Congress as the first Indian American woman to ever run for United States Congress.
Though she didn't win, she didn't take it as a failure. Instead, Reshma felt that the Congressional run unlocked her to live a life of real risk-taking and bravery. Then she took her learnings from the campaign road and transformed them into a hugely successful opportunity: Girls Who Code.
Creating an Impact During the Pandemic
During the program's run, she had a son in 2015 and another in 2020. When the pandemic stretched out across the globe, Reshma faced extra layers of difficulties.
“I found myself having to go back to work, take care of a newborn, homeschool a kindergartener, and literally save my nonprofit from being shut down,” Reshma remembers.
“Almost my entire leadership team at Girls Who Code were working moms of young kids, and we were barely holding on. The pandemic pushed millions of women out of the workforce at record speed. In September 2020, 4X as many women as men dropped out of the labor force.”
Reshma began to dig into this issue and consider what could be done.
“I realized that I could teach millions of girls to code, but if I didn’t help their mothers, I hadn’t done anything.” She wanted her work to make a lasting impact, not just be a temporary fix.
In 2021, she launched Moms First, a movement to fight for America’s mothers. The organization changes the narrative around motherhood to win affordable child care and paid family leave. In 2026, they premiered No Country for Mothers, described as “a documentary investigation into the lies dividing American mothers and the movement to bring them back together.”
“We’re working to shift the culture, so we can finally win the support that moms deserve like child care and paid leave.”
When Reshma became a mother, she didn’t have to choose between her activism and her children. Instead, she saw the expansion of who she is and what she does. Every day, Reshma sees how motherhood continues to expand who she is and what she can become.
Let Go of Perfectionism in Motherhood
The balance of motherhood and activism can sometimes create burnout among mothers. That’s why Reshma urges moms not to strive to be perfect. Perfection is an illusion. But burnout is real.
She encourages other moms who dream of making a greater impact but don’t know where to start:
“I would start small. I started by taking 20 girls and putting them in a classroom and teaching them to code."
"Sometimes, when we set the goal to be too big, we give up. But if we start small, we take one step and then another, and before we know it, we have built a global movement for change!”
Reshma also advocates for working families and women and girls’ economic empowerment and for affordable child care and paid leave. She wants the conversation about universal child care to be discussed more openly in society.
“Childcare is the linchpin of economic security. When we fix child care, we can fix economic security for America’s families and more specifically, American mothers.”
Courage Can Be Quiet
That courage to speak up and add “activist” to her list of responsibilities may look different than one expects. For some mothers, courage can look like making a powerful speech before influential people or getting the crowds to shout a rallying cry.
“We talk about courage like it should feel powerful,” Reshma says. “Righteous. Cinematic. Liberating.”
But sometimes, courage is quieter.
“You say the hard thing. You take the risky leap. You make the decision no one else wants to make, and then you wait.”
Mom and More
For Reshma, the “and more” that follows the title “Mom” looks like the founder of Girls Who Code, the founder of Moms First, a lawyer, and an entrepreneur. Your own journey will help you stretch, too, at your own pace and for your own calling. Whatever you eventually add to “Mom and more,” remember you're to be brave, not perfect.
Reshma Saujani x Momcozy: More Impact
At Momcozy, we know that making an impact is woven into the motherhood experience. When you raise children, you impact the future. So, we're happy to partner with Reshma, who exemplifies being a mom and making an impact for other moms, to celebrate Momcozy Brand Day. Reshma's story and desire to make a lasting impact on girls and moms was shaped by her vocation as a mom. And her journey reminds us that personal growth and motherhood go hand in hand.
