Twenty years ago, a person would require a whole host of materials and gadgets to manage their daily lives: notebooks, keys, wallet, maps, calculators, music players, cameras – all of which are staple features of the modern smartphone. The first website and browser were created in 1991, and the multinational space station was launched into space in 2000. Flatscreen TVs were yet to be even imagined up, and households had only recently gained access to personal phones over landlines. Over the span of the new Millenium, technology has evolved even more rapidly; from the creation of artificial intelligence, and all its associated risks, to global domination by tech giants such Apple, Microsoft, and Google, multinational companies with an almost-monopoly over tech. This development has outpaced regulation. Concerns over lack of transparency, privacy breaches and the effects of surveillance capitalism have never been higher. As celebrated computer scientist Timnit Gebru puts it, tech “impacts people all over the world and they don’t get to have a say on how they should shape it.” 

While much has been done to democratise the internet, access remains unequal based on gender. A majority of South Asian women still lack proper access to technologies as basic as mobile phones. Adolescent girls in South Asia are in fact likely to have access to basic digital skills such as emailing or sending digital files as compared to their male counterparts. Access aside, harassment and online abuse loom large. A global study found that of over a thousand female journalists, nearly 73% had faced online sexual harassment, abuse, and violence.  

The field of technology is also biased against women working within it. In the United Kingdom, only 5% of tech leaders are women, while women make up less than 1% of top leadership positions in India. Despite comprising 1/3 of the workforce at the 20 largest tech companies in the world, only 1 in 4 people at the highest level are women. While every child can name a famous (male) tech hero, be it Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, they would be hard-pressed to do the same for women in the field. That is not to say that women do not contribute to technology: the very first person to create a computer algorithm was Ada Lovelace, sometimes referred to as the “mother of computers.” Women across the board point to a lack of equitable recognition, work culture, and pay – challenges only exacerbated in the AI sector, wherein women make up only 22% of professionals.  
Governance structures are moving toward addressing these problems. Litigation world over is underway to criminalise cybercrime and also even out the playing field by preventing technology company monopolies. The European Union’s Digital Markets Act is the first of its kind to regulate the monopolies of giant technology companies.

In this world of ever-evolving laws, cyber security threats, and complicated governance, how do women find their way, both as professionals, and private individuals? In the third conversation in our Women in Governance series,Mahima Kaul, former Director, APAC Public Policy, Bumble, will be in candid conversation with Mishi Choudhary, founder, Software Freedom Law Center. Together, they will explore their personal and professional lives working in the technology field; the changes in the field over their own careers; the current governing structures and what can be done to improve them; instances of and solutions to gender-based violence online; and finally, what they believe a good future for women in technology – working or using it – looks like in South Asia. 

This session is part of our ongoing Women in Governance series, where two women in related fields explore the personal, professional and political pathways available to women in South Asia.  

SPEAKERS

Mahima Kaul is a public policy professional with over 15 years of experience in policy leadership, partnerships, journalism, and think-tank research. She recently served as the Director of APAC Public Policy at Bumble, establishing the company’s public policy function in the region, focusing on AI-enabled harm and online safety regulations. Previously, she led Twitter's India and South Asia public policy team, focusing on data protection, content moderation, and free expression. Mahima also headed the Cyber and New Media Initiative at the Observer Research Foundation. She holds a Master’s in Communication Policy from the University of Westminster and a Bachelor’s in Political Science and History from McGill University. She tweets from @misskaul.

Mishi Choudhary is the founder of the Software Freedom Law Center, India (SFLC.in). She is a technology lawyer and an online civil liberties activist who practices law in New York and New Delhi. She has been at the forefront of advocating for internet freedom, privacy, and innovation. Open magazine called her an emerging legal guardian of the free and open internet. She was named one of the Asia Society’s 21 young leaders, building Asia’s future, in 2015. She was inducted into the Aspen Global Leadership Network by the Aspen Institute. She advises Columbia University’s Global Freedom of Expression project and serves on the Board of IFEX and Global Network Initiative. 

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