AI's Impact on Jobs Could Widen the Global Gender Gap

The conversation around the impact of generative artificial intelligence, or AI, on the labor market has shifted from whether it will displace jobs to whose jobs are at stake and how quickly. In this new paradigm, gender is emerging as a key fault line, and nowhere is this tension more evident than in countries where gender disparities already inform who works, as well as at what jobs and under what conditions.

A landmark May 2025 report by the International Labour Organization, or ILO, and Poland’s NASK Research Institute shed light on these questions, while adding nuance. The report found that women around the world are disproportionately more likely than men to be employed in roles “highly exposed” to automation by generative AI, such as Large Language Model chatbots.

Pawel Gmyrek, the lead author of the ILO-NASK study, told World Politics Review that if the highly exposed jobs identified in the report were to disappear, two women would be displaced for every man. This is especially salient for countries like India, Brazil and South Africa, where state-led digitization is central to economic development strategies.