More women 'at the table' will not save us

Deconstructing the failed approach of gender-based performative appointments.

We have published the annual “100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics” list since 2018 to elevate the work and profiles of talented women underrepresented in the AI & technology space.

Over the past decade, we along with the United Nations and other labor organizations have observed that women’s individual successes have not translated into meaningful collective progress.

On average, women in the labor market still occupy only 30 per cent of managerial positions globally and women spend about two and a half times as many hours in unpaid domestic and care work as men.

Many women use gender-related credentials or personal hardship stories to get access to power and fame, only to discard their quest for equality and equity after getting “a seat at the table.”

At the rate of progress as of 2023, it would take an estimated 300 years to end child marriage, 286 years to close gaps in legal protection and remove discriminatory laws, 140 years for women to be represented equally in positions of power and leadership in the workplace, and 47 years to achieve equal representation in national parliaments.

Dr. Ruha Benjamin eloquently called out the failure of performative appointments based on race and gender in her powerful speech during Spelman College’s Founder Day Convocation 2024.

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Black faces in high places are not going to save us. Just look at the Black woman’s hand - Ambassador at the UN - voting against a ceasefire in Gaza.

Dr. Benjamin also dispelled the myth that race and gender by themselves are enough to engender trust or liberate us from oppressive systems.

“Our Blackness and womenness are not in themselves trustworthy if we allow ourselves to be conscripted into positions of power that maintain the oppressive status quo.

Dr. Benjamin’s profound proclamation is true for women of all races and ethnicities, across all sectors, and at the highest levels in our governments.

Let’s take the example of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. She was informed back in August 2025 by Democratic Women’s Caucus that women were at increased risk from masked ICE agents in plain-clothes and unmarked vans.

“Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts University graduate student, was accosted and detained by more than five plain-clothes, masked ICE agents and placed into an unmarked vehicle in broad daylight. This horrifying scene appeared more like a kidnapping than an arrest by legitimate law enforcement.”

Despite the horrifying consequences, Noem continues to defend rogue ICE agents, who most recently shot a Minnesotan woman in the face.

Noem wore the massive hat at a Wednesday press conference as she accused 37-year-old mother Renee Nicole Good, gunned down in her car by an ICE agent at a protest in Minneapolis, on Wednesday, of being a “domestic terrorist” who tried to run over the ICE agent who killed her.

Known less for her competence and more for her hats and many outfits, Noem is a caricature of modern feminism - vapid, loud, and photo-friendly.

Women elected to powerful political positions in other western democracies are also actively undermining the rights of immigrant and working class women.

Marine Le Pen and Giorgia Meloni represent a new model of far-right political marketing. It presents Western neoliberalism as a beacon of women’s empowerment — claiming to defend women’s rights, even as they attack migrants and low-earners.

We see the same pattern repeated in Silicon Valley, where women leaders are hand-picked from a small pool of elites to retain the status quo. Groomed for success from a young age, these women attend prestigious schools and secure coveted roles through their friends and family network.

Their rapid ascent up the career ladder is powered by outsourcing domestic work and care responsibilities to lesser-paid non-white women, while spouting feminist rhetoric and championing meritocracy.

And while mothers’ unpaid household labor often supports fathers’ labor force participation, low-paid domestic labor helps to support the so-called work-life balance of high-income white women while largely denying those same benefits to low-wage female workers, who are disproportionately women of color.

What do women with power, privilege, and elite status do after they get a coveted seat at the table? They support the agendas of their employers, give lofty speeches on feminism, and write memoirs.

Lest you forget Silicon Valley’s own neo-liberal feminist icon, Sheryl Sandberg who has penned not 1 but 2 books on the subject. Her association with Mark Zuckerberg has made many question if it was all a PR tactic to deflect from Facebook/Meta’s many ethical transgressions.

“She always knew who Mark Zuckerberg and covered for him,” New York Times reporter Sheera Frankel, who co-wrote a book about Facebook’s dominance, observed on Bluesky. “ The question is whether she will continue to do so when he so blatantly throws her under the (Trump) bus.”

Linda Yaccarino, who was hired by the world’s richest man, when he took over X, has left the company after a brief stint.

After ad spending declined in Yaccarino’s first year, she helped restore it enough by the end of her run (in part via legal threats against advertisers threatening to stay on the sidelines, according to the Wall Street Journal)

The list goes on but one thing is for certain, elite women disconnected from and unaffected by the realities of socio-economically disadvantaged and oppressed class will not save us. They merely serve as a foil for those who seek to undermine gender inequity and inequality.

It’s time for the techno-elite institutions and their leaders to stop their self-indulgent musings on why “we” are not making progress.

All they need to do is look in the mirror.