How to close the gender gap in AI jobs
Men outnumber women in the AI workforce, and studies show women are far less likely to use generative AI in the workplace. Read on to learn how to build strategies for closing the AI gender gap across job sectors.
By: James M. Tobin, Edited by: Valerie Black
Published: September 11, 2025
The state of AI
Businesses worldwide have begun implementing artificial intelligence (AI) across their organizations. In some cases, companies have completely reorganized themselves around AI integrations. Experts believe this marks the beginning of what will become a global trend.
As AI use becomes more integrated into our daily and work lives, another trend is emerging: a gender gap. A 2025 Harvard Business School study analyzed adoption rates of chat-based generative AI tools like ChatGPT. The study found that women are 20% less likely than men to use these tools.
An even wider gap defines the technical side of the AI employment landscape. In October 2024, interface published a comprehensive analysis of 1.6 million tech workers in the AI economy. The analysis found that just 22% of global AI professionals are women.
These trajectories suggest a need for corrective action. Explore strategies for closing the AI gender gap in both technical and non-technical workplace roles.
AI barriers that can contribute to the gender gap
The AI gender gap suggests that relative to men, fewer women are pursuing AI education and career paths. Employers are also struggling to attract and retain women AI professionals. Observers have been asking why, and common theories include:
Disparities in STEM education access
Women are significantly underrepresented in STEM education. According to UNESCO, they comprise only about 35% of STEM program graduates worldwide. UNESCO also notes that little progress has been made in raising that figure, despite a decade of effort.
The American Association of University Women (AAUW) has explored some of the barriers and challenges girls and women face when accessing STEM education. They include early exposure to gender-based biases and a lack of encouragement in middle and high school.
Because of these influences, fewer girls and women pursue postsecondary STEM education, which can partially explain their underrepresentation in STEM professions.
Discriminatory employment practices
Women in STEM fields also struggle with unequal pay, high rates of sexual harassment, and unconscious biases that limit both their opportunities and advancement potential.
The AAUW also highlights exclusionary cultures, childcare burdens, and a general deficiency of employer and governmental support.
These factors significantly contribute to the underrepresentation of women in tech and AI.
Biases in AI recruitment tools
STEM employers — and employers in many other fields — have begun to adopt AI recruitment tools when screening candidates for available vacancies. However, these tools are only as equitable as they were programmed to be. AI programmers' conscious or unconscious biases can carry over to the software products they produce.
When recruiters use biased tools to fill AI positions, their hiring practices will reflect the same biases.
Ways to close the gender gap in AI jobs
Closing the AI gender gap will require bold action that engages employers, policymakers, educational institutions, and other stakeholders. When applied diligently, such efforts can yield steady and consistent progress with the potential to reverse current trends and build a more equitable AI employment environment.
The strategies individuals and employers can start using right away include:
Reskilling or upskilling
AI anxiety has triggered a major global wave of artificial intelligence reskilling and upskilling.
While broader social and economic forces are beyond the control of any individual, you can take action as the author of your own life story. Reskilling and upskilling can help you stay relevant in a changing world and build the confidence you need to succeed with AI, regardless of gender.
Reduce bias in AI training data
Developers of AI technologies have an important role to play in bridging the gender gap. They can begin by addressing inherent biases that impact AI and how it functions.
In December 2024, MIT News reported on a breakthrough technique capable of finding and eliminating AI training data that leads to biases, stereotypes, and modeling failures. When applied at a design level, the approach holds the potential to make meaningful progress.
Rethink workplace culture
Organizational leaders can revamp their organizational cultures to place greater emphasis on creating equity-focused opportunities. By elevating the women who do work in AI to positions of power, organizations can show more junior women employees that they, too, can grow their careers.
Create equitable AI policies in the workplace
Employers can set clear guidelines and expectations with respect to their AI integrations. Specifically, they can provide open-access AI training programs and explain exactly how, when, and why AI should be used in executing job duties. This can standardize AI productivity and help eliminate the wide gender gap in workplace-based AI usage rates.
Build gender equality into AI governance
Despite AI's meteoric rise, governance frameworks remain underdeveloped or entirely absent at the national and international levels. Policymakers widely consider this a major risk of AI technology — one that a unified governance model could address.
By including diverse voices in policy development and emphasizing ethical AI system design requirements, an AI governance framework could meaningfully address persistent gender gaps in AI access and professional opportunities.