Anne-Marie Slaughter

In 2012, Anne-Marie Slaughter published “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All” in The Atlantic.

It went viral.

725,000 readers in four days.

119,000 Facebook recommends.

Front-page New York Times coverage.

Her point was simple: success in a high-powered career is still structured for people who don’t have to do the caregiving.

And that usually means men.

But here’s what most people didn’t know…

She wasn’t just writing as a frustrated working mom.

She was speaking as one of the most influential women in U.S. foreign policy.

Anne-Marie Slaughter’s résumé was already stacked:
– JD from Harvard, DPhil from Oxford
– First female Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. State Department, appointed by Hillary Clinton
– Dean of Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs
– Tenured professor at both Harvard Law and Princeton
– President of the American Society of International Law
– Recipient of the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Medal

She had been in the Situation Room.

She had shaped America’s diplomatic strategy.

And she had walked away from it all, to spend more time with her teenage sons.

In 2013, she took the helm of New America: a public policy institute that combines research, tech, and media to tackle issues like education, economic security, and democracy.

They incubate tools, policies, and platforms across five massive areas:
– Education & the future of work
– Family economic security
– Democracy & tech
– Global politics for people and planet
– Civic engagement & political reform

New America works with everyone from foundations to governments to private companies.

They’re fully independent.

And fully committed to equity.

But it hasn’t all been smooth…

In 2017, New America abruptly shut down its Open Markets program after the program’s director, Barry Lynn, praised the EU’s antitrust ruling against Google.

One of New America’s major funders.

Lynn was fired. The program was disbanded. And the backlash was immediate.

The New York Times reported that Google had pressured the organization behind the scenes.

Slaughter denied it, saying Lynn had violated internal norms and that funding never influenced their research.

But 25 current and former New America fellows signed a public letter expressing concern over the lack of transparency, and what it meant for donor influence.

The moment sparked a larger question: can a think tank challenge concentrated power when it relies on concentrated money to survive?

Outside of New America, she kept writing.

Publishing nine books, over 100 academic articles, and countless op-eds in The Financial Times, Project Syndicate, and The Atlantic.

She also helped shape modern foreign policy thinking, serving on the boards of:
– The Council on Foreign Relations
– The Center for a New American Security
– The Brookings Doha Center
– The National Endowment for Democracy
– The Center for Strategic and International Studies