Close AI Gender Gap: Before Women Disappear From Tech For Real
The gender gap in AI adoption, exclusion, effects and economic impact is real, global and immediate. It is caused by many factors including a supposed reticence to embrace, sexism in human leaders and discrimination emerging in the technology itself. The systems and the culture in AI and tech need to change with more women at the helm.
A recent report from Harvard Business School with researchers from Harvard, Stanford and Berkeley universities shows, “Gender gaps in generative AI use are nearly universal. Synthesizing data from 18 studies covering more than 140,000 individuals across the world, combined with estimates of the gender share of the hundreds of millions of users of popular generative AI platforms, we demonstrate that the gender gap in generative AI usage holds across nearly all regions, sectors, and occupations.”
“Data from 140,000 individuals across the world shows the #gendergap in generative #AI usage holds across nearly all regions, sectors, and occupations.@HarvardHBS @Stanford @UCBerkeley ”
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Since women comprise just under 50% of the workforce in the U.S., a 25% usage gap “could result in hundreds of billions of dollars of lost productivity and growth,” according to the researchers’ report.
This gap is due to gender discrimination in hiring, promotion, access, availability and preference for those to assume AI leadership roles.
Some are blaming the gap on women’s attitudes and personal preferences. The new CNBC/ Survey Monkey Poll on women at work shows, “Despite optimism for AI, workers express concerns over lack of training, job losses, and increased workloads surrounding AI.”
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About 25% of women use AI multiple times a day, compared to 32% of men. More than 41% of women feel like using AI at work is cheating, compared to 34%. A strong 84% say AI is a valuable collaborator and assistant, but 30% of women say AI creates more work for them, the poll shows.
“Survey @CNBC : 25% of women use AI multiple times a day, compared to 32% men. 41% of women feel using AI at work is cheating, compared to 34% men. #gender #attitudes @workplace #AI ”
Both men and women at 69% and 70% feel AI is going to cause job losses.
“I’m really worried that we’re at risk of creating a two-tiered AI economy if we don’t engage women more actively and really respect the unique skills and expertise that they bring to the field, skills that are critically important to making sure that AI evolves safely and equitably,” said Mara Bolis, founder of First Prompt, tells Story Exchange.
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“Only once a significant portion of C-suite professionals in AI are women with the necessary leadership skills will companies create more welcoming cultures, ensure that professional ladders are robustly developed, create policies that reflect the complexities of women’s lives and ensure products are not reinforcing bias,” says Gloria Feldt, co-founder and president of Take The Lead.
Feldt continues, “We will not solve the problems without women in AI companies’ leadership or leadership in companies using AI. Unless you have equal leadership, you don’t have the power or the sensibility to make the necessary choices.”
Read more from Gloria Feldt on women in tech
“With a reported 53% gap in AI talent, firms are deploying targeted initiatives to train mid-career professionals for roles in AI/ML engineering, data science, AI product management, and GenAI-led functions,” according to StoryBoard.
“Research from the Brookings Institution estimates that 6.1 million U.S. workers are highly vulnerable to AI displacement and about 86% of them are women. Global data shows a similar pattern: 9.6% of jobs held by women are at high risk of automation, compared to 3.5% for men,” Forbes reports.
“@BrookingsInst: 6.1 mm U.S. workers highly vulnerable to AI displacement; 86% are women. Global data: almost 10% f jobs held by women are at high risk of automation, compared to 3.5% for men. #gendergap #AI #jobloss”
“Women are currently at greater risk of displacement because of how work has been structured. For companies, that introduces operational, economic, and strategic risk,” Forbes reports. Melissa Allen, founding partner at Capital M Ventures, tells Forbes “the impact of AI cannot be separated from the realities women already face in the workforce.”
Addressing this gender and generational gap in AI leadership. Lean In co-founder Sheryl Sandberg recently hired Bridget Griswold, 25, as CEO, succeeding Lean In CEO and cofounder Rachel Thomas. “In this moment of rapid change, we are making sure that women don’t get left behind, but instead step up & lead the AI revolution,” Sandberg wrote in an announcement to Lean In staff.
“@LeanInOr Founder @SherylSandberg hired @BridgetGriswold, 25, as #CEO: “In this moment of rapid change, we are making sure that #women don’t get left behind, but instead step up & lead the #AI revolution.” #leadership @takeleadwomen”
Assuredly, AI is not creating inequality. It is accelerating what is already there and businesses will feel the impact. This also has to do with gender-based bias, inaccuracies and harsh approaches denying equity.
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Take The Lead’s 2026 Power Up Conference: Audacity: Leadership in Action, August 26 will deal directly with solutions for gender inequities in tech and in AI in particular from top leaders in the field.
“In this AI era, the data is the land and the ownership is the gold rush,” Stacey Engle, CEO of Twin Protocol, founder of Authority Lab, and Take The Lead board member, said at the 2025 Power Up conference.
How we change, utilize and adapt the systems and practices surrounding AI is the key factor.
“Gloria Feldt @takeleadwomen co-founder, president: “We will not solve the problems without women in #AI companies’ #leadership or leadership in companies using AI. Unless you have equal leadership, you don’t have the power or the sensibility to make the necessary choices.” ”
Yes, AI does have top leaders who are women. Daniela Amodei, 38, a married mother of two, is the co-founder and president of Anthropic, who helped to create the company in 2021, and is worth an estimated $7 billion. The company was in the news recently for a “human-centric” leak of 500,000 lines of source code.
Even with such influence and impact, there may always be a presence of bias and toxicity in AI, however.
According to Futurism.com, “In a CNBC interview Thursday, Palantir cofounder and CEO Alex Karp opined that AI will undermine the influence of ‘highly educated, often female voters’” and empower working class men instead. And anyone who doesn’t realize this political reality, he added, belongs in an ‘insane asylum.’” A new report from McKinsey on women in AI in Europe, finds, “As AI redistributes value toward more advanced, hybrid roles, the region faces a pivotal choice: whether to allow existing gender gaps to widen or to see women as a critical lever in building the next generation of AI leadership.”
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The report shows that women make up only 19% of employees in core tech roles, a decrease from 22%. This shows “efforts to address the persistent lack of representation have failed to make progress.” Additionally, “many of the tech layoffs attributed to AI to date have been in roles disproportionately held by women (such as product and design), suggesting that without interventions, the share will drop even further.
“@McKinsey in Europe: Women make up only 19% of employees in core tech roles, a decrease from 22%. This shows “efforts to address the persistent lack of representation have failed to make progress.” #gendergap #tech #AI #leadership ”
While this current view is dim, with fewer entry levels for women, more mid-level women leaving and fewer women in tech considered for top spots, there are solutions, McKinsey reports.
Read more in Take The Lead on women in tech
“Companies should be prepared to implement a holistic, enterprise-wide program that integrates culture, skills, and operating-model initiatives tailored to women’s existing capabilities as well as organizational needs and priorities. A focused set of actions across three areas could raise female representation, close critical skill mismatches, and strengthen both women’s long-term career prospects,” the report states.
“@McKinsey: For #AI leadership parity: “Companies should be prepared to implement a holistic, enterprise-wide program that integrates culture, skills, and operating-model initiatives tailored to women’s existing capabilities as well as organizational needs and priorities.” @leadership #gendergap”
Yes, but something else to consider is if there is a conflict in the office, do not expect AI to be fair.
A new Stanford University study shows, “Compared to human responses, all of the AIs affirmed the user’s position more frequently. In the general advice and Reddit-based prompts, the models on average endorsed the user 49% more often than humans. Even when responding to the harmful prompts, the models endorsed the problematic behavior 47% of the time.”
Feldt writes in Take The Lead , “Research indicates that AI systems can inadvertently perpetuate existing biases present in the data they are trained on. This is a critical issue, as biased AI systems can reinforce gender and racial stereotypes, leading to unfair treatment and creating obstacles for women and minorities in leadership positions.”
The solutions are available now.
