Eight out of 10 women's jobs could be impacted by AI
In contrast, six out of 10 men's jobs may be exposed to AI automation. I explain why.
The Impact of AI on Jobs
There have been a number of analyses on the economic and employment impact of generative AI since ChatGPT stunned everyone with its arrival and its capabilities. OpenAI, OpenResearch, and UPenn performed one study, Goldman Sachs executed a study as well, and there have been others. All have projected significant exposure to AI automation of knowledge worker occupations (e.g., paralegals) while those AI tools will have minimal impact on jobs that require a significant physical component (e.g., construction worker).
For example, the Goldman Sachs study projected that about two-thirds of jobs will be impacted by generative AI. Based on the employment share of those 15 occupations and the share of the tasks in those jobs exposed to automation (25%-50% percent), the study authors projected that up to a quarter of the work tasks being performed today could be automated by generative AI.
It has long been spinning in the back of my mind that there will likely be a larger impact on women than men due to generative AI automation based on my assumption that a higher percent of working women are in white collar jobs as a percent of their total than men. So I thought I’d test that assumption.
Job Impact by Gender
You can read the more detailed analysis here but here is a summary: using the Goldman Sachs list of the top 15 job categories impacted by generative AI, I analyzed the gender breakdown for those occupations with data from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. The gender breakdown of the total of all the top 15 occupations were then calculated to determine the impact of generative AI by gender.
As a result of that analysis, I found that eight out of 10 women (58.87 million) in the U.S. workforce are in occupations highly exposed to generative AI automation (more than 25% of the occupational tasks) vs. six out of 10 men (48.62 million). Overall, 21% more women are exposed to AI automation than men even though men outnumber women in the workforce. This is due to the affected occupations being populated by more women than men. “Highly exposed” means 25%-50% of the tasks in that occupation could be automated by generative AI.
The reason more women than men are potentially exposed to AI automation is not nefarious. It’s straightforward: a higher percentage of working women are in white collar jobs (~70%) vs. blue collar ones (~30%) while for men the ratio is roughly 50/50. White collar (i.e., cognitive) jobs are more likely to be impacted than blue collar (i.e., physical) ones.
Some caveats: It is still very early in the game and hard to know how things will play out. Also, we shouldn’t think of the impact being all negative. There may be many positives to workers. As I say in the detailed analysis, some workers “will be freed up to be more efficient and creative, thus increasing both productivity and quality. New jobs will be created as well, and workers may find more meaning in their work if AI allows tasks that are time-consuming to be automated.”
We will have to see how things play out. In the meantime, here is a quote from the master stoic, Marcus Aurelius. The reference to meeting the future with our weapons of reason is an interesting one. Will those suffice in an AI world?