SPOTLIGHT: The AI gender gap
May 2025
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Men are ahead of women in AI adoption across "every age group":
Women "haven’t been as eager as men to embrace" AI.
Men "outpace women in generative AI use across every age group," with the largest gap "among Generation Z workers."
A survey by Oliver Wyman found that "59% of male workers aged 18-65 around the world" said they "use generative AI tools at least once a week," compared to just 51% of women who said the same.
The gender gap was "widest among the youngest of workers," with "71% of men ages 18-24" saying they used generative AI on a weekly basis, compared to just 59% of women who said the same.
Men outpace women in generative AI use across every age group."
The AI gender gap could have "big implications" for how "jobs of the future" are filled:
Experts say the fact that "female employees are trailing behind their male colleagues" when it comes to adopting AI "could have big implications" for both the "career trajectories" of individuals as well as for "the companies creating and filling the jobs of the future."
If the existing AI gender gap is not addressed, it could "magnify gender imbalances in traditional “pink collar” occupations" and “limit opportunities for women in the occupations of the future.”
Experts say upskilling can help "reverse the trend":
Investing in upskilling could make a significant difference in reversing the existing gender gap.
98% of workers surveyed by Oliver Wyman "said they need to be upskilled over the next five years due to AI disruption," while “business leaders believe only 40% of their workforce actually needs such upskilling.”
Read more via World Economic Forum, Oliver Wyman
AI poses a more significant threat to jobs that are "traditionally done by women":
AI is "increasingly" taking over "administrative tasks" and is changing the way clerical and secretarial work gets done.
Jobs that are "traditionally done by women" are "more vulnerable to the impact of artificial intelligence than those done by men," according to a new report by the United Nations' International Labour Organization (ILO).
The ILO report says that jobs traditionally done by women in high-income countries are especially vulnerable to AI.
9.6% of "traditionally female jobs" are "set to be transformed" by AI, "compared with 3.5% of those carried out by men," the report found.
Read more via ILO, Reuters, ILO (full report)
Large Language Models (LLMs) are the "natural language processing tools that underpin popular generative AI platforms."
According to a 2024 UNESCO study, LLMs show "worrying tendencies" to "produce gender bias."
One LLM "described [women] as working in domestic roles" four times more often than men, according to the study.
Looking at words associated with women versus men, LLMs were more likely to associate women with certain words (home, family, children), while men were associated with other words (business, executive, salary, career).
Experts say LLMs and AI platforms "have the power to subtly shape the perceptions of millions of people, so even small gender biases in their content can significantly amplify inequalities in the real world."
Read more via UNESCO
AI systems, learning from data filled with stereotypes, often reflect and reinforce gender biases. These biases can limit opportunities and diversity, especially in areas like decision-making, hiring, loan approvals, and legal judgments."
In 2018, Amazon reportedly “scrapped” an AI hiring tool after it was revealed the “system effectively taught itself that male candidates were preferable.” (BBC)
AI-powered facial recognition systems are reported to have “had more difficulty identifying women than men.” (The New York Times)
An investigation by journalists at The Guardian using AI tools found that AI “tags photos of women in everyday situations as sexually suggestive.” The technology was shown to “rate pictures of women as more “racy” or sexually suggestive than comparable pictures of men,” prompting algorithms to “suppress the reach of countless images featuring women’s bodies” and potentially harming “female-led businesses.” (The Guardian)
