On October 18, The Commonwealth Club hosted a conversation between President and CEO of New America, Anne-Marie Slaughter, and TechCrunch reporter, Megan Rose Dickey. The topic? Technology for the people.
Photo by Cianna Allen
Slaughter’s think and action tank, New America, was created to renew “American politics, prosperity, and purpose in the Digital Age.” As the first woman to serve as the director of policy planning for the US Department of State, Slaughter worked under then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. During her time in this position, she found that government is falling behind in this technological age. She believes that being illiterate in the language of tech is the antithesis to innovation, and hopes that New America can help combat this issue by increasing the knowledge and use of technology in a variety of aspects of American society.
For example, Slaughter thinks that technology could significantly help widespread issues such as homelessness and immigration services. However, she recognizes that tech isn’t always the answer for problems in politics. She discussed how we are in the process of rebuilding democracy, which involves rebuilding trust. This must be done in an “old-fashioned” way, and therefore tech can’t be the only solution. But tech can be the answer to other issues.
Photo by Cianna Allen
Slaughter, who is still best known for her article in The Atlantic titled “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All”, is a big advocate for gender equality. But in this conversation, she stressed the need for a different type of equality: tech equality. In other words, she believes that we need to make sure people aren’t getting left out or left behind because of a lack of access to technology. Therefore, she thinks that the government should provide some sort of subsidies or assistance to make technology available to everyone in its most basic form– the same way the government ensures access to things such as food and transportation. She explained how democracies are most stable with low levels of inequality. And in today’s digital age, that extends to technological inequality. She also discussed that this “transition” to tech, similar to other historical transitions due to major developments, will cause unrest. But in the end, tech will be extremely beneficial to all members of society if utilized correctly.
Since Slaughter is a huge voice for women, she did discuss how technology can be beneficial for women, specifically. Referencing her Atlantic article, she talked about how it still isn’t as easy for women to have a career and a family as it is for men. She believes that technology could help level the playing field for women by allowing for more flexibility in their careers. But she stressed that “trade offs are real, whether we like it or not”, and that being prepared for trade offs will allow women to keep going and be more successful in their careers.
Photo by Cianna Allen
She also discussed her belief that technology is the new law school. In other words, it used to be that people who wanted to make a difference and solve problems went to law school, because creating policy was the answer to everything. But now, Slaughter says that tech is the answer. In what she calls “public interest technology”, tech can be used as an optimization tool to make our society function optimally. And with women becoming increasingly present in law schools, Slaughter believes that soon women will infiltrate the tech world as well.
So while Slaughter recognizes that our society seems to be going backwards with Trump in office, she has faith that we will push forward, and that we are steadily moving in the right direction. As long as people recognize the power and importance of tech in this digital age, we will continue to thrive, and hopefully everyone will reap the benefits of a tech-savvy society.
By: Cianna Allen