In this op-ed, Girls Who Code founder and CEO Reshma Saujani explores the responsibility of CEOS and business leaders in fighting the policies of the current administration.
Last fall, I declined an invitation to collaborate with the Trump Administration on a $200 million initiative to expand computer science education. My position has not changed. I felt then, as I do now, that as long as extremists and open bigots inhabit the White House, there is no common ground nor common purpose to be found.
It’s been less than a year since that invitation, and things have only gotten worse. This past month, the Trump administration enforced a no-tolerance policy that separated families seeking asylum at our southwestern border — trapping more than 2,000 children in detention centers, with no word on when they’ll be reunited with their parents.
I feel sick just writing the words. I’m ashamed that we’ve fallen so far. And I worry about whether we’ll ever find our way. It’s one thing for me to say these things as a mother, as a daughter of refugees, as an American citizen.
It’s another thing entirely for me to say these things as the founder and CEO of a national non-profit. But it’s in that capacity, as CEO of Girls Who Code, that I feel it’s most important to consistently condemn the human rights abuses of this Administration. For those of us with power — with a platform — this is not about activism, it’s about responsibility. We have a duty to our children, to our country, to the ideals and values that made it possible for us to rise and to have such power in the first place.
And I’m heartened to see that I’m not alone — thanks in part to the young people across the country who are sending a message not just at the ballot box, but in the marketplace.
According to a recent survey, 76% of Americans say CEOs have a responsibility to create change on issues facing society. And CEOs are listening. They know that a many millennials actively seek out information about companies’ viewpoints. They know that 74 percent of millennials will take an action — whether signing a petition, speaking out on social media, joining a march, contacting a company, or buying elsewhere — based on a CEOs stance on a hot topic.
In January 2017, 153 top CEOs and companies issued statements against the Muslim ban — half of them tech companies. After Trump withdrew from the Paris climate accord, thousands pledged to stand by the agreement, declaring “We Are Still In”. When he failed to denounce white supremacists, CEOs walked away from his Strategic and Policy Forums, effectively disbanding the two groups. When he put 700,000 Dreamers at risk of being deported, business leaders wrote opinion pieces and tweeted statements alongside #DefendDACA and #WithDreamers.
But we need our CEOs to do more and our young people have the power to continue to push them to do more. As some of the biggest agents of change in this country — as people on the vanguard of innovation and growth and building this nation up, our CEOs cannot sit by while this administration tears it down. It is incumbent upon them to continue to vocalize opposition to inhumane policies — and young people can play a big role in whether and when and how forcefully they do.
Yes, get out the vote efforts and turnout for upcoming elections on Tuesday, November 6th are vitally important. But those who are too young to vote — and those who aren’t! — also have tremendous power in the marketplace. It’s possible to use a dollar or a tweet or a letter in the same way we might use a vote: to support the people and organizations and businesses that reflect our values. And women, who influence 83 percent of all consumer spending in the U.S., can have a particularly powerful impact here.
CEOs today have the ability to sway public opinion about controversial social issues, potentially to the same extent as prominent politicians. That kind of power cannot be taken lightly — not when we have children trapped in cages at the border and who knows what sort of similarly egregious policies on the horizon.
But if every American has the power to sway a CEO, then every American quite literally has a chance to sway public opinion, to shape the way we talk and think and act on our values system — to change the way we treat our fellow Americans and those who come here seeking a better life for their families.
Together, we can show our leadership what real leadership looks like — leadership from the diverse business leaders, young people, entrepreneurs, and yes, immigrants, who make this country great.
