Colombo (ILO News) Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is reshaping the world of work, with the potential to boost productivity, support job creation and improve job quality, but its impacts are far from gender-neutral. A new research brief from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) warns that GenAI is set to affect women’s jobs more than men’s, with female-dominated occupations almost twice as likely to be exposed to the technology.

The brief, GenAI, occupational segregation and gender equality in the world of work, shows that women are disproportionately exposed to GenAI for three main reasons: they are overrepresented in jobs most susceptible to automation; they remain underrepresented in AI-related and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) occupations; and AI systems themselves often reflect and reproduce the gender biases embedded in societies.

Across countries with available data, occupations dominated by women are almost twice as likely to be exposed to GenAI as male-dominated ones, the study finds. Around 29 percent of female-dominated occupations are exposed to GenAI, compared to just 16 percent of male-dominated occupations. The difference is even starker when looking at high automation risk: 16 percent of female-dominated occupations fall into the highest exposure categories, compared to only three percent of male-dominated ones.

These risks are closely linked to occupational segregation. Women are heavily concentrated in clerical, administrative and business support roles, such as secretaries, receptionists, payroll clerks and accounting assistants, where many tasks are routine and codifiable and, therefore, at higher risk of substitution by GenAI. By contrast, men are more represented in construction, manufacturing and manual trades, where tasks are less easily automated.

At the country level, women are more exposed to GenAI than men in 88 percent of countries analysed. In several economies, more than 40 percent of women’s employment is exposed to GenAI, including Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the Philippines, as well as small island developing States in the Caribbean and the Pacific. In high-income countries overall, 41 percent of jobs are exposed to GenAI, compared with just 11 percent in low-income countries, reflecting differences in occupational structures and digital readiness.

“Generative AI is not entering a neutral labour market,” said Anam Butt, co-author of the ILO research. “Discriminatory social norms, unequal care responsibilities and economic and labour market policies that do not fully address the needs of women and men to continue to shape who enters which occupations and on what terms. As a result, women are concentrated in occupations that are more likely to be exposed to automation and remain underrepresented in AI-related jobs, facing higher risks but fewer opportunities from this technological shift.”

While GenAI is expected to drive job growth in technology-intensive sectors, women remain largely excluded from these opportunities. Globally, women accounted for only about 30 percent of the AI workforce in 2022, only four percentage points higher than in 2016. They are also underrepresented in STEM jobs more broadly, particularly in high-demand fields such as engineering and software development.

This imbalance matters. When women are missing from AI-related jobs and decision-making roles, they are less likely to benefit from new employment opportunities and skills development. At the same time, enterprises lose out on talent, diversity and innovation.