Summary

In “Teach girls bravery, not perfection” by Reshma Saujani, the speaker begins by telling a personal story of bravery about how she ran for Congress despite the fact that the polls were against her. Saujani ran for office confident that she would win. She raised money and received positive reviews from the media. However, she still lost, winning only 19% of the votes.

Although the experience was humiliating, the speaker claims that her talk is not about failure but bravery. She argues that most women are taught to avoid taking risks. Girls are taught to be perfect while boys to take risks and learn through trial and error. She believes that this is one of the reasons why the proportion of women in politics and business is so low. 

She presents a 1980s study that found that clever fifth grade girls were more likely to give up when trying to solve a difficult challenge, compared to similarly intelligent boys. Another study shows that most women do not apply to jobs unless they meet 100% of the job requirements, while most men will apply to a job even if they only meet 60% of the requirements....