- Artificial Intelligence is rapidly transforming workplaces worldwide, yet women remain significantly underrepresented in the field and senior AI roles. This raises concerns about gender bias in AI.
- AI systems reflect the priorities and data chosen by those who design them. Without stronger representation of women, existing gender bias risks becoming embedded in digital systems.
- Giving women equal authority and influence in AI design, governance and oversight could produce more inclusive technologies and help advance gender equality at work.
In 2025, the World Economic Forum reported that it would take 2,158 years to achieve Planet 50/50, which was described as a gender-equal planet.
A year later, that statistic remains relatively unchanged, except there is one critical element that has escaped sustained scrutiny, even as it steadily transforms the future of work and could either shorten or prolong the projected 133-year wait for gender equality.
That element is the rapid and growing integration of artificial intelligence and technology in the workplace.
Comparative data indicate that in 2025, 78 percent of global companies had incorporated AI into at least one of their business functions. In January 2026, this percentage increased to 91 percent, suggesting a 17 percent increase in the adoption of AI in at least one business function within organisations worldwide. At this rate, it is expected that by 2027, 75 percent of all organisations worldwide will incorporate AI in most of their business operations.
This rapid digitisation has forced scholars in gender studies to deliberate on a crucial question. As artificial intelligence reshapes our workplaces, will it widen gender inequality, or will it create new pathways for the achievement of a gender-equal workplace?
The theme for the 2026 International Women’s Day is “Give to Gain.” This raises an important question about power, inclusion and accountability in shaping AI systems in the workplace, and what we could gain for gender equality in return.
The intersection of gender and AI
At face value, many may see the introduction of AI into professions as nothing more than a technological innovation. However, its integration in the employment sector has profound sociotechnical implications, as it shapes and interacts with existing social structures, norms and inequalities in the workplace. These existing social structures, norms and inequalities have for a long time oppressed women and contributed to the lack of gender equality in many professions, especially at strategic and leadership levels.
The intersection of gender and AI represents a striking contrast for gender equality. This intersection could symbolise extraordinary promise or an additional threat. AI within professions holds the potential to become a powerful tool for gender equality, empowering women through expanding access to education, improving women’s participation in the workforce and increasing economic opportunity.
However, if it is designed and adopted without specific attention to gender dynamics, AI will simply reproduce historical gender inequalities, embedding them more deeply into the new systems that will become woven into the future. The defining factor regarding the outcome we face is a result of the choices we make now.
For us to establish AI as a catalyst for gender equality, we need to ensure that we design, apply and govern AI in a way that dismantles inequality and gender bias rather than automates it.
As we approach International Women’s Day, we advocate for equal rights and equal justice for women and girls across the world. This leads us to consider what we must give women in shaping AI in the workplace, if we are to “Give to Gain,” and what we might gain in return.
Why women must shape AI systems
Statistics on the gender composition of AI employees across the world indicate that women are grossly underrepresented in this field, comprising only 22 percent of AI professionals and occupying less than 14 percent of senior positions in AI. But why is this important, and what are the implications of female underrepresentation in the AI sector?
AI systems are a product of the questions developers ask, the issues they prioritise and the datasets they use to train them. When there is a lack of gender parity in teams that are responsible for the design, application and governance of AI, the systems that are produced are shaped by narrow perspectives, leading to a lack of representation of women’s experiences and systems that are trained on historically biased datasets. This bias becomes embedded in technology and AI systems, which are scaled across institutions and societies.
However, when women are given authority and influence over the design and application of AI systems, their representation transforms from tokenism to meaningful power. Their voices and experiences become embedded in these systems, increasing the likelihood that gender bias is identified and corrected, and that diverse realities are recognised, resulting in more accountable, inclusive and legitimate systems.
In this regard, giving representation, influence and authority to women in AI system design and implementation is not just a concession, it is an act of fairness. It allows us to renegotiate whose stories are heard and legitimised, and whose intelligence shapes our future.
Governance and accountability in AI
Giving women equal representation and influence in AI governance and oversight is critical to ensuring accountable and ethical AI systems. Governance refers to who sets the rules and whose values guide the adoption of AI systems, while oversight ensures that these systems are implemented in a fair, ethical and transparent manner.
Ensuring women are represented in these spaces provides avenues for redress and increases the possibility that inequality and bias are identified and addressed before they are legitimised in institutions and societies. This creates accountable and ethical AI systems that dismantle inequality.
The reality is that AI is here to stay. It is not on the verge of being embedded within professions, it already is. The burning question is whether we will allow it to reproduce existing inequalities or whether we will redirect and reshape the influence it has on gender equality. If we advocate and strive for women to have equal authority and influence in its development, deployment, governance and oversight, we will be able to ensure that AI systems are harnessed as powerful engines for change.
The GAP project on Gender and AI in Professions, which I am currently working on, confronts this reality directly. The project investigates how AI is reshaping professional spaces and asks a very pertinent question about how we can ensure that this transformation advances rather than undermines gender equality.
On this International Women’s Day, under the banner “Give to Gain”, the message is clear. If we give women equal authority, influence and representation in shaping AI, we not only gain more inclusive systems but also fairer professions. In doing so, we may shorten the fight for gender inequality and move a step closer to fair and just workspaces.
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