UNRIC (UN Women)
RSS FeedAI is advancing fast. Women are being left behind in the workforce and leadership.
Original Published: September 22, 2026
🎯 Impact Sentiment: Concerning
📋 Summary
- UN Women's Gender Snapshot 2026, launched at the UN General Assembly, finds women account for only about 22% of AI professionals globally and hold fewer than 14% of senior leadership positions shaping the technology.
- Women are around 20% less likely than men to use generative AI tools.
- According to the International Labour Organization, occupations dominated by women are almost twice as likely to be exposed to generative AI as those dominated by men.
- UN Women is calling on governments, development partners and tech companies to strengthen AI safeguards and regulation and ensure women's equal participation in AI development and decision-making, noting that almost one in four incidents of online violence against women activists and journalists involved AI.
💡 JR Insights
- 💼 Implication: The best-paid roles in the AI economy are concentrating among men, while the jobs women hold are the most exposed to generative AI disruption.
- 🚨 Risk: Women in clerical and administrative roles face a double squeeze — higher displacement risk and lower access to the AI skills and careers that are growing.
- ✨ Takeaway: Build hands-on generative AI fluency now, seek out women-in-AI communities and mentorship programmes, and target roles that combine domain expertise with AI oversight.