On the eve of Egypt’s January 2011 revolution, I happened to be in Cairo, having dinner with Gamila Ismail, a longtime Egyptian political activist who had spent decades opposing the Mubarak regime. “What will happen tomorrow?” I asked her, referring to the public demonstration planned for the next day in Tahrir Square. “It will be the huge,” she insisted, monitoring Twitter and Facebook feeds on her cell phone. Gamila and a young assistant had spent weeks helping to organize the demonstration through social media. “We think hundreds of thousands of people could join the protest. This could finally be our moment for real change.” Indeed.

Much has been made of the role of social media in the Arab uprisings, in particular how it has given voice to youth and women in unprecedented ways. But social media is just the latest in a long line of technologies that have been driving profound changes in civil society for centuries. From the first notions of community developed around the earliest campfires to the rise of social organizations aided by the printing press, to the revolutionary role of radio and then television, technologies have shaped ideas, forged movements, and driven social and political activism. The spread of new technologies across much of the developed world in the past century has also helped drive a revolution in women’s empowerment and rights.

Now, a new generation of technologies is spreading to the developing world with a similar effect. Technological advancements are making contraceptives accessible to millions of poor women in developing countries, giving them more control over birth spacing and family size. Time-saving devices are freeing women from nonproductive chores, allowing them to engage in a wide range of economic, social, and political activities; new communication tools are giving women access to ideas, education, and learning. New media are encouraging women’s mobilization. Across the developing world, a quiet revolution is taking place for women, aided by technology in many ways.

Transforming Daily Lives

Some years ago, I was in a small village outside of Herat in western Afghanistan, sitting in on a workshop teaching women how to start a small business. The room was filled with burqa-clad figures fidgeting restlessly in the heat. As the session wore on, a woman in the back shouted out something in Dari, starting a commotion.