I am Generation Equality – Michelle Stout, American technology executive and advocate of digital inclusiveness
Billions of people across the world stand on the right side of history every day. They speak up, take a stand, mobilize, and take big and small actions to advance women’s rights. This is Generation Equality.
Date:
Three actions you can take to build a more inclusive digital world:
- Adopt a learning and growth mindset to solve society’s problems using technology.
- Help bring in different voices, irrespective of gender age and location, and unlock the power of technology to enrich lives everywhere
- Create more opportunities for young women and girls to get ready for the digital world.
I am Generation Equality because…
Times have changed considerably compared to prior generations. There is no reason for women not to have equal rights and opportunities, and to change this, it starts with us taking action. There remains a critical barrier for inclusive growth, including current gender gaps in access, learning, application, and trust in technologies. Women worldwide can enable a more equitable digital transformation by excelling in learning to enrich the lives of communities where we live with emerging technologies such as AI (artificial intelligence).
Digital readiness needed more than ever
The world has changed in how we live, learn and work. The pandemic has caused nations to re-examine how they operate and their competitiveness to address the digital skills gap. There is a greater need to build more trust and responsible usages of emerging technologies to revitalize society. Expanding digital readiness for all -- irrespective of rural or urban location, gender, ethnicity, age, or economic status -- is critical for our society to reset and thrive. Building trusted public-private solutions for empowering the next generation with digital skills and helping the workforce in upselling and reskilling in an inclusive way is urgent.
“Men play a crucial role in building an inclusive society that can thrive on the power of digital readiness. They can support women and girls by role modeling respect, support and encouragement, creating and sharing opportunities, and making technology inclusive for anyone, regardless of gender.”
My advice to young people is to embrace the change with technologies, build the learning and growth mindset, and take meaningful steps to apply the technologies to solve problems you are passionate about. Tina Sahu, a grade 10 girl from India who participates in our AI programmes, uses computer vision to predict depression among schoolchildren. She is an excellent role model of how young people can build local innovation and take action.
Men play a crucial role in building an inclusive society that can thrive on the power of digital readiness. They can support women and girls by role modeling respect, support and encouragement, creating and sharing opportunities, and making technology inclusive for anyone, regardless of gender.
It’s your responsibility to take action
If everyone unites to create change, change will happen. All women should be respected and treated equally, as these are rights to which all people are entitled. Respect for all people is rooted in our Intel values and purpose, and it is every employee’s role to put these into action. Hence, we believe it is an equal responsibility of all, irrespective of the role you play, as a technology user, designer or supplier, to ensure women are given an equitable opportunity in this digital transformation era.
Michelle Stout is a senior director in the Governments, Markets and Trade organization at Intel Corporation, a technology multinational headquartered in Santa Clara, California. She runs an AI training programme in Asia. Stout leads the Intel organization dedicated to building public-private partnership solutions for governments, academia, and communities to address the digital skills gap and build more trust and responsible usage of emerging technologies. These programmes focus on working with governments to forge a more equitable digital transformation empowering women and girls through technology and skills development.