| | | | |  | | By Katelyn Fossett | | 
Alondra Nelson, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C., on April 21, 2022. | Stephen Voss/POLITICO Magazine | Good afternoon, rulers! Are you doing anything for White House Correspondents' Dinner this weekend? I have to admit, it is nice to see the custom resume, even if I never score any invites to the fancy parties. Send me invites at kfossett@politico.com. Thank you to Maya Parthasarathy for your help with this newsletter. Politico Magazine is out this week with a deeply reported profile of the woman redefining the Office of Science and Technology Policy: Alondra Nelson. She took over when her predecessor, Eric Lander, resigned after reports emerged of his bullying and mismanagement, particularly with women in the office. Now, as reporter Nancy Scola writes, Nelson is tasked not only with leading the office back to normalcy but also with injecting President Joe Biden's commitment to equity into the policy areas overseen by the office. That's a change for the office, which has typically been overseen by white men with hard-science backgrounds, but it's one that Nelson, a sociologist who has studied the intersection of race, gender and technology, is uniquely suited for. Still, the challenges she faces are substantial — and are also a unique window into the kinds of concerns about racial and gender inequities that are rarely considered in science and tech. Those concerns, though, are also becoming more urgent as the line between online and offline worlds is blurred.
| | | | Sponsored by Business Leader members of Women Rule: The Exchange: As inflation rates soar and disruptions to the global supply chain persist, all eyes are on the nation's economic recovery. But getting back on track in an inclusive and sustainable way is no easy feat. POLITICO Focus connected with members of Women Rule: The Exchange to learn about the strategies and solutions that will power an economy that benefits all. Join the Conversation. | | | Here are the top five things you should know from the article about Nelson and the changes she wants to make. She's not a permanent director — but signs indicate she will be in the job for a while. Nelson is technically not an "acting" director, a title that would limit her to 210 days. She is likely in this job until a new nominee is confirmed, which could take a while; her predecessor was pending before the Senate for four months. Her academic background is in sociology, and she has been particularly interested in intersections of tech and communities of color. In graduate school at NYU in the '90s, she started a listserv for others interested in Afrofuturism, an aesthetic and philosophy that blends tech and ideas about the future with the experiences and history of the African diaspora. Her dissertation recounted the Black Panthers' health activism, and she wrote a book in 2016, The Social Life of DNA, that explored early adopters of consumer genetic testing kits who were Black. The book explored the potential the kits held for reclaiming lineages lost due to slavery and the potential role they could play in reconciliation processes such as reparations. She is known as an adept manager of people. When it was time to replace Lander, who was both science adviser and OSTP director, Biden split those roles, naming Nelson OSTP leader and geneticist Francis Collins his science adviser. Biden needed a "collegial and adept leader of people and I think for that Alondra was absolutely the right choice," said John Holdren, who served as both OSTP director and presidential science adviser under Obama. Her biggest priority in policymaking is building technology that uses fundamental rights held by citizens in a democratic society as its blueprint, she tells Scola. What does that mean? One of her biggest policy pushes is the creation of an AI bill of rights, which would guarantee the rights that people should expect from new technology. Another is advising Biden on how to tackle cryptocurrencies, especially in a way that might ensure the benefits can be spread to women and people of color. She is optimistic. Nelson has been driven by optimism her whole career — optimism that a better technology for all people can exist. "I've been studying marginalized communities' relationships with science and technology, and have a depth of understanding that these communities don't only see peril, but also promise," she told Scola. And now at OSTP, "I have the ability to steer these things towards the promise." LOG ON TODAY — Women and Tech: Seizing the Next Revolution: The world is living through a new era in tech marked by innovations in AI, 5G and blockchain. Join Women Rule TODAY at 1 p.m. ET for back-to-back conversations on how to ensure women get the access and opportunities they need to shape the next tech revolution. FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, Anu Duggal, co-founder, Female Founders Fund, and Elaine Chao, former US secretary of labor and former secretary of transportation will be among the panelists. Register here to tune in live: https://womerule429.splashthat.com/newsletter | | | "The Madeleine Albright Few Knew," by James Rubin for POLITICO Magazine: "Earlier today, as I sat in the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. — as did President Joe Biden, former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, former Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice, and many, many others — my mind returned to intense memories of a very different time: a time when America was respected, admired and feared around the world, a time in the late '90s when Madeleine Albright became the first woman to be named Secretary of State. ... "In the 1990s, Secretary Albright really was a woman alone in a sea of men. At the United Nations, she used to joke that if she ever wrote a book it would be called '14 Suits and a Skirt,' as she spent most of her time in the U.N. Security Council with 14 male ambassadors. At the time, of the 180-odd countries, there were only five other female ambassadors. So, naturally she started a lunch club for the six of them. (Some 28 years later, I called her from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris to tell her that a lot had changed since her club of six. Today, of the 38 leading democracies which make up the OECD, more than half were represented by female foreign or finance ministers at the first meeting I attended. She laughed and asked: "Why did it take so long?") "Back then, it really was different. And it took a lot of confidence and charm to operate as the only woman. For example, when she became secretary of State, she confided in me that she had decided to try to hire the strongest possible team, even if that meant the difficulty of dealing with the above-average male egos that inevitably come with strong personalities. And then she did exactly that."
| | | | Sponsored by Business Leader members of Women Rule: The Exchange:   In the Round: A conversation with today's leaders. | | | "Dems grow alarmed by lack of fear over Roe's future," by Laura Barrón-López and Alice Miranda Ollstein for POLITICO: "For decades, Democrats insisted that Republicans would invite a major voter backlash if they took aggressive action to curtail abortion rights. Now, as a growing number of GOP-led states do just that, passing a slew of bills curtailing abortion with no exemptions for rape and incest, they fear that voters are uninformed or misinformed about the stakes. And they are sounding the alarm that more is needed to engage voters and warn them that the current slate of laws is just the beginning. "To reach voters in key swing states, Planned Parenthood is launching a national $16 million TV, streaming and digital ad campaign. The campaign, first shared with POLITICO, will run in states like Arizona, Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, Ohio and Florida and focus on reaching voters of color and young people. The ads will run through the Supreme Court ruling expected this summer on a challenge to Roe v. Wade and are accompanied by Spanish and English websites to educate the public on abortion access in different states, locate health centers and provide resources on how to get politically involved. "The move comes as Democratic pollsters, campaign operatives and candidates argue that the party needs to act more aggressively ahead of the high court's decision and not wait until the ruling is handed down. Key to making this reality stick, they say, is President Joe Biden." " The New Abortion Restriction No One is Talking About," by Micele DeMarco for POLITICO Magazine
| | | "Why retiring from politics is more complicated for women," by Sara Luterman for The 19th: "Over the past couple of years, there has been a stream of reporting and rumors about the mental capacity of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who at 88, is currently one of the oldest members of Congress. Most recently, multiple colleagues told the San Francisco Chronicle that they no longer believe Feinstein is fit to serve, with one saying the senator forgot who they were multiple times during a conversation. … "Concerns about the cognitive capacity of elected officials are not new. In 1996, Kevin Sack wrote in The New York Times about then 93-year-old Senator Strom Thurmond's seeming confusion during a speech. Thurmond went on to serve seven more years, until his death at 100 years old. Similar concerns were raised about Senator Robert Byrd before his death in office at 93. "But experts say that Feinstein choosing to stay in the Senate well into her 80s could be making up for lost time in the political sphere. Women in politics like Feinstein face unique practical challenges involving family life and perceived competence. "Women in politics have historically started their careers later than men. 'The gendered expectation is that you need to be home with your children,' said Suzanne Chod, a professor of political science at North Central College who focuses on women in American politics. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, for example, didn't run for office until her youngest child had left for college. She was 47 years old. Pelosi is currently 82 and while she has faced accusations of dementia, the attacks come more or less exclusively from the political right."
| | | | Sponsored by Business Leader members of Women Rule: The Exchange: As inflation rates soar and disruptions to the global supply chain persist, all eyes are on the nation's economic recovery. But getting back on track in an inclusive and sustainable way is no easy feat. Today, women are still finding themselves disproportionately affected by pervasive inequities when it comes to leadership, wages, and skills-building. Bridging these profound gender 'gaps' will be paramount to the country's ability to achieve sustained growth for the future. But where do we start?
POLITICO Focus sat down with members of Women Rule: The Exchange to answer this very question. Click here to see what leaders had to say about the strategies and solutions that will power an economy that benefits all. | | | "Why Brittney Griner was in Russia, and what it says about women's sports in the U.S.," by Lindsay Kagawa Colas in the Los Angeles Times: "I woke up to the phone ringing just after 5 a.m. in Portland. My colleague was calling from the East Coast. 'Lindz, it's BG. She's been taken into custody at the airport. She has her phone and can text.' Brittney Griner, who had spent several WNBA offseasons starring for UMMC Ekaterinburg, an elite Russian basketball club team, had been traveling back to Ekaterinburg from the U.S., connecting in Moscow when she was detained. She was now in the custody of Russian officials at the airport and, for the next several hours, I tracked her location on my phone and continued texting her, trying to stay with her as long as I could. "Staying with her was what Brittney had asked me to do when I started representing her as her sports agent right out of college in 2013. Though she was projected to be the No. 1 pick overall in the WNBA draft, the most important conversation we had early on wasn't about endorsements or fame. From my experience in the business, I knew that success on the court for women has never been enough to guarantee women similar commercial rewards to men. Only women athletes regarded as conventionally beautiful by a Western standard, 'feminine' — or simply perceived to be straight, who were both white and often less important, successful at winning, got any hint of endorsement opportunities. The WNBA and its players, in all of their intersectional power and beauty, are still waiting for society to catch up. "Fighting to shift how the marketplace views and values women athletes has been at the center of my entire career as a sports agent. For Brittney, the most important things I could do to support her career and ensure she maximized opportunity were 1) to make her as much money on the court, as quickly as possible and 2) to always tell her the truth, do my best to protect her and be there for her, no matter what. Before that February morning, that included advising her (along with several other clients) to take advantage of the opportunity to play in Russia for the highest paying team in the world. Ever since that day, it has meant working furiously to try to summon every resource I can to help her, so that I can keep another promise I made after she was formally charged and minutes before she was led away. 'BG,' I said, 'We love you. We are here. Be brave. We will get you home.'" | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
Comments
Post a Comment