From 6–10 July 2026, Soroptimist International representatives gathered in Geneva to contribute to global discussions on artificial intelligence, digital cooperation and technology governance. The following reflections were drafted by Tania Gómez Herazo, SI Advocacy AI Advisor, and cover sessions she attended, led and contributed to on 8 July during the AI for Good Global Summit 2026.
Reports by Tania Gómez Herazo, SI Advocacy AI Advisor
Network of Women Ministers and Leaders in ICT
Breakfast Meeting
Event: AI for Good Global Summit 2026
Organiser: ITU, with the General Women’s Union of the UAE . Invitation Only, hosted by ITU Secretary General, Doreen Bogdan-Martin.
Date: 9 July 2026, 08:00–09:30, Room X, Palexpo
A packed room before 8 a.m. told its own story. The ITU Secretary-General, the first woman elected to the role in the organisation’s 161 years, grounded the celebration in numbers: about 20% of ICT ministers and 23% of regulators are women; women make up under 30% of the global AI workforce; and 44% of 133 AI systems studied showed gender bias. Her challenge: build a future where no woman ever wonders if she belongs in technology.
The programme modelled its own message. An intergenerational exchange paired five established leaders with five young change-makers answering the same questions, from Namibia’s Minister of ICT (“take up space, and when you do, multiply”) to a young leader whose live-streaming business carried her from rural China to a PhD. A moving keynote on “the luggage outsiders carry” reminded us that diversity feels uncomfortable precisely because it works, and that allies act, putting names on covers and people in rooms.
What stayed with me: One speaker asked us to measure every word at these tables against one figure: the girl who is eight years old today, who will inherit whatever digital order this decade builds.
Network of Women Ministers and Leaders in ICT
Leadership Circle Lab
Event: AI for Good Global Summit 2026
Organiser: ITU and Women at the Table
Date: 9 July 2026, 11:00–11:45, Room K, Palexpo
This working lab asked a sharp question: where does the commitment to gender-responsive AI lose traction in your system, at the budget, the procurement rule, the standards table, or the appointment?
The answers were bracingly practical. Budget “stares at you” first, but participants agreed the levers are connected: legacy procurement and budgeting processes were not built for the AI era, and appointments must be diverse across sectors, a healthcare leader reminded us that who sits at the decision table shapes what gets implemented. AI itself exposed the gap: ask an image model for “a speaker at an AI conference” and it doesn’t return a female speaker.
The richest debate concerned procurement, as a policy tool. Could governments and companies contractually require providers to demonstrate diversity in the team’s designing and deploying AI, through RFPs and CSR evidence? A devil’s advocate raised blind procurement to guard against tokenism; others countered with lived evidence that representation changes outcomes: one board member described a women’s health product that male-only C-suites could not relate to, while companies with women executives signed within a week.
The take-away: Women build and amplify for other women. This is not a slogan; it is a market observation. Embedding representation into procurement, standards, and appointments turns intention into mechanism.
