So a few years ago,I did something really brave,or some would say really stupid.I ran for Congress.

For years, I had existed safely behind the scenes in politicsas a fundraiser, as an organizer,but in my heart, I always wanted to run.The sitting congresswoman had been in my district since 1992.She had never lost a race,and no one had really even run against her in a Democratic primary.But in my mind, this was my wayto make a difference,to disrupt the status quo.The polls, however, told a very different story.My pollsters told me that I was crazy to run,that there was no way that I could win.

But I ran anyway,and in 2012, I became an upstart in a New York City congressional race.I swore I was going to win.I had the endorsement from the New York Daily News,the Wall Street Journal snapped pictures of me on election day,and CNBC called it one of the hottest races in the country.I raised money from everyone I knew,including Indian auntiesthat were just so happy an Indian girl was running.But on election day, the polls were right,and I only got 19 percent of the vote,and the same papers that said I was a rising political starnow said I wasted 1.3 million dollarson 6,321 votes.Don't do the math.It was humiliating.

Now, before you get the wrong idea,this is not a talk about the importance of failure.Nor is it about leaning in.I tell you the story of how I ran for Congressbecause I was 33 years oldand it was the first time in my entire lifethat I had done something that was truly brave,where I didn't worry about being perfect.

And I'm not alone:so many women I talk to tell methat they gravitate towards careers and professionsthat they know they're going to be great in,that they know they're going to be perfect in,and it's no wonder why.Most girls are taught to avoid risk and failure.We're taught to smile pretty,play it safe, get all A's.Boys, on the other hand,are taught to play rough, swing high,crawl to the top of the monkey bars and then just jump off headfirst.And by the time they're adults,whether they're negotiating a raise or even asking someone out on a date,they're habituated to take risk after risk.They're rewarded for it.It's often said in Silicon Valley,no one even takes you seriously unless you've had two failed start-ups.In other words,we're raising our girls to be perfect,and we're raising our boys to be brave.

Some people worry about our federal deficit,but I, I worry about our bravery deficit.Our economy, our society, we're just losing outbecause we're not raising our girls to be brave.The bravery deficit is why women are underrepresented in STEM,in C-suites, in boardrooms, in Congress,and pretty much everywhere you look.

In the 1980s, psychologist Carol Dwecklooked at how bright fifth graders handled an assignmentthat was too difficult for them.She found that bright girls were quick to give up.The higher the IQ, the more likely they were to give up.Bright boys, on the other hand,found the difficult material to be a challenge.They found it energizing.They were more likely to redouble their efforts.

What's going on?Well, at the fifth grade level,girls routinely outperform boys in every subject,including math and science,so it's not a question of ability.The difference is in how boys and girls approach a challenge.And it doesn't just end in fifth grade.An HP report found that men will apply for a jobif they meet only 60 percent of the qualifications,but women, women will applyonly if they meet 100 percent of the qualifications.100 percent.This study is usually invoked as evidence that, well,women need a little more confidence.But I think it's evidencethat women have been socialized to aspire to perfection,and they're overly cautious.

(Applause)

And even when we're ambitious,even when we're leaning in,that socialization of perfectionhas caused us to take less risks in our careers.And so those 600,000 jobs that are open right nowin computing and tech,women are being left behind,and it means our economy is being left behindon all the innovation and problems women would solveif they were socialized to be braveinstead of socialized to be perfect.

(Applause)

So in 2012, I started a company to teach girls to code,and what I found is that by teaching them to codeI had socialized them to be brave.Coding, it's an endless process of trial and error,of trying to get the right command in the right place,with sometimes just a semicolonmaking the difference between success and failure.Code breaks and then it falls apart,and it often takes many, many triesuntil that magical momentwhen what you're trying to build comes to life.It requires perseverance.It requires imperfection.

We immediately see in our programour girls' fear of not getting it right,of not being perfect.Every Girls Who Code teacher tells me the same story.During the first week, when the girls are learning how to code,a student will call her over and she'll say,"I don't know what code to write."The teacher will look at her screen,and she'll see a blank text editor.If she didn't know any better, she'd think that her studentspent the past 20 minutes just staring at the screen.But if she presses undo a few times,she'll see that her student wrote code and then deleted it.She tried, she came close,but she didn't get it exactly right.Instead of showing the progress that she made,she'd rather show nothing at all.Perfection or bust.

It turns out that our girls are really good at coding,but it's not enough just to teach them to code.

My friend Lev Brie, who is a professor at the University of Columbiaand teaches intro to Javatells me about his office hours with computer science students.When the guys are struggling with an assignment,they'll come in and they'll say,"Professor, there's something wrong with my code."The girls will come in and say,"Professor, there's something wrong with me."

We have to begin to undo the socialization of perfection,but we've got to combine it with building a sisterhoodthat lets girls know that they are not alone.Because trying harder is not going to fix a broken system.I can't tell you how many women tell me,"I'm afraid to raise my hand,I'm afraid to ask a question,because I don't want to be the only onewho doesn't understand,the only one who is struggling.When we teach girls to be braveand we have a supportive network cheering them on,they will build incredible things,and I see this every day.Take, for instance, two of our high school studentswho built a game called Tampon Run --yes, Tampon Run --to fight against the menstruation tabooand sexism in gaming.Or the Syrian refugeewho dared show her love for her new countryby building an app to help Americans get to the polls.Or a 16-year-old girl who built an algorithmto help detect whether a cancer is benign or malignantin the off chance that she can save her daddy's lifebecause he has cancer.These are just three examples of thousands,thousands of girls who have been socialized to be imperfect,who have learned to keep trying, who have learned perseverance.And whether they become codersor the next Hillary Clinton or Beyoncé,they will not defer their dreams.

And those dreams have never been more important for our country.For the American economy, for any economy to grow,to truly innovate,we cannot leave behind half our population.We have to socialize our girls to be comfortable with imperfection,and we've got to do it now.We cannot wait for them to learn how to be brave like I didwhen I was 33 years old.We have to teach them to be brave in schoolsand early in their careers,when it has the most potential to impact their livesand the lives of others,and we have to show them that they will be loved and acceptednot for being perfectbut for being courageous.And so I need each of you to tell every young woman you know --your sister, your niece, your employee, your colleague --to be comfortable with imperfection,because when we teach girls to be imperfect,and we help them leverage it,we will build a movement of young women who are braveand who will build a better world for themselvesand for each and every one of us.

Thank you.

(Applause)Thank you.

Chris Anderson: Reshma, thank you.It's such a powerful vision you have. You have a vision.Tell me how it's going.How many girls are involved now in your program?

Reshma Saujani: Yeah. So in 2012, we taught 20 girls.This year we'll teach 40,000 in all 50 states.

(Applause)

And that number is really powerful,because last year we only graduated 7,500 women in computer science.Like, the problem is so badthat we can make that type of change quickly.

CA: And you're working with some of the companies in this room even,who are welcoming graduates from your program?

RS: Yeah, we have about 80 partners,from Twitter to Facebookto Adobe to IBM to Microsoft to Pixar to Disney,I mean, every single company out there.And if you're not signed up, I'm going to find you,because we need every single tech companyto embed a Girls Who Code classroom in their office.

CA: And you have some stories back from some of those companiesthat when you mix in more gender balancein the engineering teams, good things happen.

RS: Great things happen.I mean, I think that it's crazy to me to think about the factthat right now 85 percent of all consumer purchases are made by women.Women use social media at a rate of 600 percent more than men.We own the Internet,and we should be building the companies of tomorrow.And I think when companies have diverse teams,and they have incredible women that are part of their engineering teams,they build awesome things, and we see it every day.

CA: Reshma, you saw the reaction there. You're doing incredibly important work.This whole community is cheering you on. More power to you. Thank you.

RS: Thank you.

幾年前，我做了一些非常勇敢的事，或許有些人會(huì)說(shuō)很愚蠢的事。我參選國(guó)會(huì)議員。

很多年來(lái)，我安全地存在于政治活動(dòng)背后。作為資金籌集人，作為組織者，但我的內(nèi)心，我一直希望參選。我所在選區(qū)的國(guó)會(huì)議員女士從1992年起擔(dān)任這個(gè)職務(wù)。她從未輸過(guò)一場(chǎng)選戰(zhàn)，沒(méi)有人真正認(rèn)真地在民主選舉中與她競(jìng)爭(zhēng)。但在我心中，這就是我創(chuàng)造不同的方式，改變現(xiàn)狀。民意調(diào)查，然而，顯示出完全不同的故事。我的民調(diào)專家告訴我我要參選簡(jiǎn)直瘋了，我不可能會(huì)贏。

但我還是參選了，在2012年，我成了崛起的新秀參選紐約市國(guó)會(huì)競(jìng)選。我發(fā)誓我會(huì)贏。我得到了《紐約每日新聞》的認(rèn)可，《華爾街日?qǐng)?bào)》刊登了我在選舉日的照片，美國(guó)全國(guó)廣播公司財(cái)經(jīng)頻道稱之為全國(guó)范圍內(nèi)最熱的選戰(zhàn)。我從我認(rèn)識(shí)的每個(gè)人那里籌錢，包括印度阿姨們她們很高興一個(gè)印度女生參選。但選舉日，民調(diào)是對(duì)的，我只拿到了19%的選票，那張?jiān)Q我為新興政治明星的報(bào)紙現(xiàn)在卻說(shuō)我浪費(fèi)了130萬(wàn)美金在6321張選票上。不要算數(shù)字。太丟臉了。

現(xiàn)在，在你們得到錯(cuò)誤觀點(diǎn)前，這不是一個(gè)講述失敗有多重要的演說(shuō)。也不是說(shuō)女孩要向前一步。我講述的故事是我如何參選國(guó)會(huì)議員的，因?yàn)槲抑挥?3歲，這是我人生中第一次做出真正勇敢的事，沒(méi)有擔(dān)心完美。

我不是一個(gè)人：太多女士曾告訴我她們多么被職業(yè)和專業(yè)吸引，她們知道她們會(huì)做得很好，她們知道她們會(huì)非常完美，不足為奇。絕大多數(shù)的女孩被教育來(lái)規(guī)避風(fēng)險(xiǎn)和失敗。我們被教育要有漂亮的微笑，不要冒險(xiǎn)，課程拿全A。男孩們，另一方面來(lái)說(shuō)，被教育成要更加勇猛，沖擊更高的目標(biāo)，爬上單杠最高的那層然后往下跳。當(dāng)他們成長(zhǎng)為大人，無(wú)論他們是在談判加薪或是約某人出去玩，他們習(xí)慣于接受一個(gè)一個(gè)挑戰(zhàn)。他們也為此得到回報(bào)獎(jiǎng)賞。在矽谷有這樣的說(shuō)法，沒(méi)人把你當(dāng)回事，除非你創(chuàng)業(yè)失敗兩次以上。另一句話說(shuō)，我們教育培養(yǎng)女孩子們追求完美，我們教育培養(yǎng)男孩子們要勇敢。

有些人擔(dān)心我們的聯(lián)邦赤字，但是，我擔(dān)心我們的勇氣赤字。我們的經(jīng)濟(jì)，我們的社會(huì)，?我們?cè)谠馐軗p失，因?yàn)槲覀儧](méi)有教育女孩子們要勇敢。勇氣赤字就是為什么女性?在科學(xué)技術(shù)工程數(shù)學(xué)（STEM）領(lǐng)域，在企業(yè)高管層，在董事會(huì)，在國(guó)會(huì)，在你所看到的任何地方都未被充分代表。

在1980年代，心理學(xué)家Carol Dweck觀察研究了五年級(jí)學(xué)生?如何處理一項(xiàng)對(duì)他們來(lái)說(shuō)太困難的作業(yè)。她發(fā)現(xiàn)，聰明的女孩們很快就放棄了。智商越高的女孩，放棄的可能性越大。男孩們，將困難的材料視為一個(gè)挑戰(zhàn)。他們?yōu)榇司Τ渑?。他們更傾向于雙倍努力。

發(fā)生了什么？嗯，在五年級(jí)，女孩總的來(lái)說(shuō)比男孩在各個(gè)科目的表現(xiàn)都要好，包括數(shù)學(xué)和科學(xué)，所以這不是能力的問(wèn)題。不同點(diǎn)在于男孩和女孩如何看待挑戰(zhàn)。這不止于五年級(jí)。一份惠普?qǐng)?bào)告指出男性會(huì)遞出工作申請(qǐng)，如果他們只達(dá)到60%的招聘要求，而女性，女性只有在100%達(dá)到招聘要求的時(shí)候才會(huì)遞出申請(qǐng)。百分之百。這份研究通常會(huì)被作為?證據(jù)來(lái)說(shuō)，嗯，女性需要更多的自信。但我認(rèn)為這是證據(jù)說(shuō)明女性長(zhǎng)期被賦予?追逐完美，她們太過(guò)謹(jǐn)慎了。（鼓掌）

即使是當(dāng)我們雄心勃勃，即使我們向前一步，社會(huì)對(duì)完美的要求讓我們?cè)诼殬I(yè)發(fā)展中選擇冒更小的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。現(xiàn)在，在計(jì)算機(jī)和科技領(lǐng)域，有六十萬(wàn)個(gè)開放申請(qǐng)的工作職位，女性被拋在了后面，這也意味著我們的經(jīng)濟(jì)?被遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)拋在了后面女性可以解決的創(chuàng)新和難題如果女性被教育要勇敢而不是完美。（鼓掌）

在2012年，我創(chuàng)辦了一家公司教女孩如何編程，我發(fā)現(xiàn)，通過(guò)教她們?nèi)绾尉幊涛伊钏齻兏佑赂?。編程，是一個(gè)無(wú)止盡的過(guò)程、實(shí)驗(yàn)和錯(cuò)誤，試著將對(duì)的指令放在合適的地方，有時(shí)只是一個(gè)分號(hào)就能決定成功還是失敗。編碼出錯(cuò)了隨后七零八落，時(shí)常需要很多很多次試驗(yàn)直到那個(gè)神奇的時(shí)刻你想要搭建的程序完成了。它需要持之以恒的努力。需要接受不完美。

我們立即發(fā)現(xiàn)在項(xiàng)目里女孩們害怕出錯(cuò)，害怕不完美。每個(gè)女孩的指導(dǎo)老師都和我說(shuō)一樣的故事。在第一周，當(dāng)女孩們?cè)囍鴮W(xué)習(xí)如何編程，一個(gè)學(xué)生叫她過(guò)去，她說(shuō)到，“我不知道要寫那個(gè)編碼?！碑?dāng)老師看她的屏幕，會(huì)看到一個(gè)完全空白的界面。如果她不知道原因的話，她也許會(huì)想她的學(xué)生在過(guò)去的20分鐘里只是盯著屏幕發(fā)呆。但如果她點(diǎn)擊幾下撤銷鍵，他就會(huì)看到她的學(xué)生寫了代碼隨后又刪掉了它們。她嘗試了，她接近目標(biāo)了，但是她沒(méi)有完全答對(duì)。比起展現(xiàn)她經(jīng)歷的過(guò)程，她寧可什么都不展現(xiàn)。要么完美要么什么也沒(méi)有。

結(jié)果顯示女孩們非常善于編程，但教給她們?nèi)绾螌懘a完全不夠的。

我的朋友Lev Brie，?是哥倫比亞大學(xué)的教授。他教授Java編程他告訴我他對(duì)電腦科學(xué)學(xué)生開放的?咨詢時(shí)間里發(fā)生的故事。當(dāng)男生們艱難應(yīng)對(duì)一個(gè)作業(yè)的時(shí)候，他們會(huì)過(guò)來(lái)然后說(shuō)，“教授，我編的程序出了點(diǎn)問(wèn)題?！迸鷤儠?huì)過(guò)來(lái)然后說(shuō)，“教授，我出了點(diǎn)問(wèn)題?！?/p>

我們必須要撤銷?對(duì)女性社會(huì)化的完美主義，我們必須要將這和建立女性支持系統(tǒng)一起讓女孩們知道她們并不孤單。因?yàn)樵倥Φ貒L試也無(wú)法修補(bǔ)一個(gè)破裂的系統(tǒng)。太多的女性朋友告訴我，“我害怕舉手發(fā)言，我害怕問(wèn)問(wèn)題，因?yàn)槲也幌胱瞿莻€(gè)那個(gè)唯一不懂的人，那個(gè)唯一掙扎的人。當(dāng)我們教女孩們要勇敢我們要有支持她們的系統(tǒng)?來(lái)鼓勵(lì)她們，她們會(huì)有偉大的成就，我每天都看到這些事。舉個(gè)例子，?兩個(gè)高中學(xué)生制作了一個(gè)游戲叫做?衛(wèi)生棉逃亡--?（譯者注：和游戲”神廟逃亡“諧音）對(duì)，衛(wèi)生棉逃亡--來(lái)反對(duì)游戲中的月經(jīng)標(biāo)記和對(duì)女性的歧視?；蚴菙⒗麃嗠y民她展示了對(duì)新國(guó)家的愛制作了一款應(yīng)用程序?讓美國(guó)人輕松了解民調(diào)?；蚴且粋€(gè)16歲的女孩?她建立了一套運(yùn)算系統(tǒng)來(lái)幫助測(cè)算癌癥是?良性的還是惡性的，抱著一絲希望能救她患癌癥的父親。這只是成千上萬(wàn)個(gè)例子中的三個(gè)，成千上萬(wàn)個(gè)女孩?被社會(huì)化為不完美的，她們學(xué)習(xí)如何不斷嘗試，學(xué)著如何持之以恒。無(wú)論她們未來(lái)會(huì)成為程序員或是下一個(gè)希拉里·克林頓?或是碧昂斯，她們不會(huì)推遲自己的夢(mèng)想。

這些夢(mèng)想對(duì)我們國(guó)家來(lái)說(shuō)?是多么重要。對(duì)美國(guó)的經(jīng)濟(jì)，對(duì)任何成長(zhǎng)中的經(jīng)濟(jì)，對(duì)真正的創(chuàng)新開發(fā)，我們不能丟下半數(shù)的人口。我們需要社會(huì)化地教女孩們?適應(yīng)習(xí)慣不完美，我們現(xiàn)在開始就要這樣做。我們不能等到她們?自己去學(xué)習(xí)如何勇敢就像我33歲時(shí)那樣。我們要教她們勇敢?在學(xué)校在職業(yè)起步的時(shí)期，在能夠影響她們的人生以及其他人的人生重要的時(shí)期，要讓她們知道?她們會(huì)被愛被接受不是因?yàn)橥昝蓝且驗(yàn)槌錆M勇氣。我需要你們每個(gè)人?告訴你認(rèn)識(shí)的每個(gè)年輕女士?--你的姐妹，你的侄女，你的雇員，你的同事?--習(xí)慣接受不完美，因?yàn)楫?dāng)我們告訴女孩?不必完美的時(shí)候，我們幫助她們平衡這樣的關(guān)系，我們會(huì)有更多勇敢的年輕女士，這些女士為她們自己和我們每個(gè)人建立更好的世界。

謝謝。

（鼓掌）謝謝。

克里斯·安德森：Reshma，謝謝你。這是非常強(qiáng)大的憧憬。?你很有眼光?，F(xiàn)在進(jìn)行的怎么樣了?，F(xiàn)在有多少女孩?加入了你的項(xiàng)目活動(dòng)？

Reshma Saujani：是的。?在2012年，有20個(gè)女孩參與。今年，我們有4萬(wàn)名女孩?來(lái)自美國(guó)50個(gè)州。（鼓掌）這個(gè)數(shù)字真的很厲害，因?yàn)槿ツ晡覀冎挥?500名女性?拿到電腦科學(xué)的學(xué)位。問(wèn)題很嚴(yán)重所以我們才能快速做出改變。

CA：你和現(xiàn)在會(huì)場(chǎng)里一些公司合作。它們歡迎你結(jié)業(yè)于你的項(xiàng)目的學(xué)生嗎？

RS：是的，我們有?大概80個(gè)合作公司，從推特到臉書還有Adobe，IBM，微軟?皮克斯，還有迪斯尼，我是說(shuō)，每一家公司。如果你還沒(méi)和我們簽合作，?我會(huì)去找你，因?yàn)槲覀冃枰總€(gè)科技公司都有能夠編程的女孩?在他們的辦公室工作。

CA：你有一些故事?來(lái)自于那些公司當(dāng)公司性別更平等的時(shí)候在工程隊(duì)，有好事情發(fā)生。

RS：太棒的事情了。我是說(shuō)，對(duì)我來(lái)說(shuō)這樣的事實(shí)?簡(jiǎn)直令人發(fā)瘋85%的消費(fèi)行為來(lái)自于女性。女性使用社交媒體的比率?是男性的六倍。我們擁有網(wǎng)絡(luò)，我們未來(lái)會(huì)創(chuàng)建公司。我想，當(dāng)公司的團(tuán)隊(duì)?更加多元化，他們的工程隊(duì)有卓越的女性，他們會(huì)建造美好的建筑，?我們每天都看到這些。

CA：Reshma，你看到了現(xiàn)場(chǎng)觀眾的反應(yīng)。?你在做卓越又重要的工作。整個(gè)群體都在為你歡呼打氣。?希望你更加成功。謝謝。

RS：謝謝。（鼓掌）