The big AI shift is here. Women’s jobs are most at risk

It is time to put the risks to women’s labor force participation due to job displacement caused by AI clearly on the agenda.

Because it’s happening now. And it affects knowledge-based workers, middle management and classes in which women are typically overrepresented or at least approximately equally represented compared to men.

This AI-driven job displacement is happening just as we deal with the other AI-driven threats to women’s safety, gender equity, and equality, including the bias embedded in algorithms and the increasing use of AI-generated deepfakes, which target women far more often than men.

Atlassian’s announcement on Thursday that it was being cut 1,600 jobs worldwide through AI reducing workforce requirements is just the latest in a series of corporate announcements that should serve as a signal larger conversations on this topic. CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes told employees: “It would be disingenuous to suggest that AI is not changing the situation…”