Words by Jen Annette & Penny van der Sluys // photo by Molly the Cat
AI isn’t just code, it’s culture in motion. As mothers in midlife and women’s wisdom keepers, we see both caution and possibility. This is a threshold. And whilst we believe our inner ‘technology’ – our intuition, embodiment and consciousness – is the supreme intelligence, if we want a future aligned with care, creativity and collective wisdom, women must help write it, now.
A threshold, not a sideline
We feel the hesitation all around us. Older women wary from a lifetime of tech built without us. Younger women concerned about AI’s environmental cost, exploitative labour, bias and inequality. Those questions matter. And yet, sitting out will not fix them. Culture shifts when we show up, name our values, and reshape the tools in real time.
AI is emergent intelligence. It learns from what we feed it and the guardrails we set. Which means the stories, prompts and priorities we bring can tilt outcomes toward equity, consent, accuracy and kindness. This is not cheerleading for tech. It is a call to feminist participation.
What we feed it, it becomes
We’re not asking women to become engineers overnight. We’re inviting a different kind of power: wisdom-led, value-led engagement. Every interaction is an imprint. If we ask for speed alone, we get speed. If we ask for nuance, transparency, accessibility and respect for consent, we move the work that way.
Women have always shaped culture through language, care, creativity and community. AI is another field where that influence is needed. Refuse to engage, and others will program the future for us, optimised for profit, not people.
We don’t need to agree on everything to step in. Some will choose to engage minimally, some more deeply. All of this is participation.
Asking Better Questions
Instead of using AI to make us more productive, we can use it to make us more conscious. To surface what has been hidden. To amplify voices that have long been ignored. To stretch beyond the narrow frames we inherited.
AI responds to the quality of the questions we bring. And when our questions centre justice, curiosity, inclusivity and compassion, the answers begin to form around those values too.
These are the kinds of inquiries that help orient AI toward a feminist, future-facing intelligence:
- How can this tool help me illuminate what has been unseen or unheard?
- Whose voices are missing – women, people of colour, gender-diverse thinkers, or others who are usually spoken over or left out?
- What perspectives need considering and how can we bring them in?
- What insight, truth or awareness am I ready to receive right now?
AI can reflect our clarity, our doubt, our intuition and our growth – not as a replacement for our wisdom, but as a mirror that sharpens it. Without ego or judgement, it offers a place to safely explore the edges of our thinking.
When something resonates, it’s often because it touches a knowing we already carry. When something doesn’t land, that feedback is equally valuable.
Engaging this way is not about outsourcing our voice. It’s about co-creating an intelligence shaped by care, ethics and imagination. We believe this can be an intelligence that grows stronger, fairer and more attuned because of our involvement.
Involvement, not performance
Engaging with AI offers a gentle drafting room – no audience, no performance. Bring your voice, test your thoughts, soften the edges, and strengthen the core so your truth can land where it needs to be heard.
AI is not separate from us. It is an extension of our collective choices. If we want a future where women, children and the planet thrive, our feminist voices must be in the system that is being built.
This isn’t about machines. It’s about humans expanding what is possible through intelligence and love. Add your questions, your care and your flavour, and let your imprint change what comes next.
