Reshma Saujani Founder/CEO of Moms First (formerly Marshall Plan for Moms)

Reshma Saujani (born November 18, 1975) is an American lawyer, politician, civil servant, and the founder of the non-profit organization Girls Who Code, which aims to increase the number of women in computer science and close the gender employment difference in that field.

She says “I had never encountered a nursing, postpartum CEO before, and I know what that representation would have meant to me earlier in my career. Still, the response was a surprise. The post blew up: nearly 5 million impressions, 45,000 reactions, thousands of comments, and hundreds of reposts. Inbound requests for demos of our platform tripled. And our volume of unprompted job applications skyrocketed overnight.

There were plenty of detractors, many of whom betrayed a deep and chilling misogyny, barely veiled as concern for my child and her welfare. If I were a male CEO, no one would ask who was taking care of the baby while I worked.

But most responses were extraordinary. Some defended me and my right to choose a path for my family. Others were from women my age, reaffirming that remote work made it possible for them to choose to have children. Many more were from women beyond their childbearing years who wondered what might have happened in their careers and their families if they had the choices that are available today.

The enthusiastic response from job seekers, most of whom are currently employed, was striking. Having autonomy over when and where we work has become non-negotiable for many. If an employer can’t provide that, people will vote with their feet, as the resumes in my inbox demonstrate. This should be a wake-up call to the many companies trying to push for a return to the dated office dynamics of 2019. The rise of flexible work is not a pandemic aberration–it’s a movement.

One response to the LinkedIn post that stayed with me was by Lisa Tweedie, a user experience designer and mom, who wrote: ‘Remote work absolutely changes the lives of parents and children. Anyone who wants to turn back that clock and send us back to the office full time really doesn’t know what they’re losing.'”

Re-reported from the story originally published in LinkedIn