We are at a critical turning point. In order to innovate and thrive in a rapidly changing global environment, new norms are needed. The “standardized male” is the default of flawed systems and cultural standards that currently control how we live and work – defaults so normalized we don’t even notice. From 20th century drug trials, international standards and global trad- ing rules, to 21st century algorithmic decision making and machine learning systems, this default has proven to harm people – and the bottom line. In fact, democracy itself is in peril. We must establish new norms. 

Particularly urgent given the scale at which ADM systems and machine correct real life bias and barriers that prevent women from achieving their full participation and rights in the present, and in the future we invent.

As Marshall McLuhan is famously quoted, “We shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us.”

 

This is our immediate challenge. We must establish new tools, and new norms, for lasting institutional and cultural systems change now and for the century beyond. This concerns all corners of the world. It is crucial that we focus on gender equality and democracy for both women and men, now. Then everyone can thrive. We must leave no one behind.