Artificial intelligence is reshaping workplaces and public life but women are entering the transformation with less representation in the sector and greater exposure to some of its risks.
The 2026 Gender Snapshot by UN Women and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs highlights persistent gaps in women’s participation in technology and decision-making as AI expands across economies.
The report was released on September 17, as part of the UN’s annual assessment of progress towards gender equality.
The imbalance is also evident within the AI industry. Data cited in the 2026 Global Gender Gap Report show women account for 25.3 per cent of top-level management in AI firms, compared with 27.7 per cent in non-AI firms.
Their representation falls further in technical roles, with women making up about 19.3 per cent of AI engineers and 20.6 per cent of machine-learning engineers in the economies covered by the analysis.
This limited representation comes as generative AI creates significant changes in the workplace. A March 2026 study by the International Labour Organisation found that female-dominated occupations are almost twice as likely to be exposed to generative AI as male-dominated occupations.
The ILO estimates that 29 per cent of female-dominated occupations are exposed to generative AI, compared with 16 per cent of male-dominated occupations.
The difference is even greater among occupations facing the highest levels of potential automation, where the figures stand at 16 per cent for female-dominated occupations and three per cent for male-dominated ones.
The exposure is partly linked to the concentration of women in clerical, administrative and business-support positions, where many tasks are routine and can be performed or assisted by AI.
However, the ILO cautions that exposure does not necessarily mean jobs will disappear, with changes to tasks, skills and working conditions expected to be more common than outright job losses.
AI is also creating new forms of technology-facilitated abuse targeting women. A 2026 report produced for UN Women, UNESCO and the International Centre for Journalists found that five per cent of surveyed women journalists and media workers had experienced deepfakes or manipulated images and videos.
The report also documented the growing use of AI-enabled abuse against women participating in public life.
The findings have particular implications for women journalists, activists and other public figures, whose participation online can expose them to harassment, manipulated content and coordinated abuse.
UN Women is calling for stronger safeguards around AI, greater participation of women in the development and governance of the technology, and measures to address its impact on women and girls.
As AI becomes more deeply integrated into workplaces and society, the gender question is increasingly about more than access to technology.
It also concerns who develops the systems, who makes decisions about their use and who bears the consequences when existing inequalities are carried into the digital economy.
