Jobs held by women most likely to be replaced by AI – Report

On the line is the labour market, where AI is poised to reshape the future of work through enhance productivity, leading to new job opportunities, and also job displacement as machines and algorithms take over tasks that were previously performed by humans. 

The Gender Snapshot 2024 report highlights how AI will impact the female labour force, where women are more likely to lose jobs as a result of AI advancements. 

The survey by UN women indicates that 3.7% of women hold jobs that could be replaced by AI technology, compared to 1.4% of men who are at risk of losing their jobs. 

It is UN Women’s recommendation that inclusive, gender-responsive digital technologies will be crucial in addressing this challenge as it can catalyze progress across multiple SDGs.

“Closing the gender digital divide, education and training, and gender-responsive labour market policies and social protection are critical to address these risks and realize benefits for women and girls from the digital revolution,” it states. 

It further advocates for targeted measures to build more inclusive digital ecosystems as it would accelerate women’s entry into and retention in the digital economy. This is through the integration of social, economic and environmental factors into the design and deployment of emerging technologies.

UN Women also notes that existing gender barriers limit women’s roles in science, technology and innovation. 

“Women are two times less likely than men to know a computer programming language, based on data from 62 countries and areas with data from 2017 or later,” the Gender Snapshot shows. 

To counter the divide, the UN body calls for the inclusion of more women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) research as their absence in the field has an impact on how technologies such as AI support women and respond to their needs.

In 2020, women held only one in three research positions worldwide and only one in five science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) jobs. Their absence in the emerging AI industry has already had an adverse impact on how well this technology supports women and responds to their needs.

Due to this lack of inclusion, bias is witnessed in the design of AI tools that are predominantly designed by men. 

A pact for technological inclusion 

Member states of the United Nations on September 22, 2024, adopted a Pact for the Future during the Summit of the Future held amid the 79th session of the UN General Assembly. 

The pact laid a foundation for technological inclusion for all, where member states committed to integrating human rights into regulatory and adoption processes for new and emerging technologies. 

“Ensure that those in vulnerable situations benefit from and fully and meaningfully participate in the development and application of science, technology and innovation,” nations submitted in their commitments for the future. 

Thy noted the existing gender digital divide and how rapid technological change, if not well governed, can exacerbate existing gender inequality and present serious risks to all women and girls.

As a result, member states committed to addressing gender-related risks and challenges emerging from the use of technologies. 

Such risks include online forms of violence, trafficking, harassment, bias and discrimination that occurs through or are amplified by the use of technology.