"Women, technology, and the future of work," 16 Nov 2018

Digitalization, artificial intelligence, and machine learning are eliminating many jobs involving low and middle-skill routine tasks through automation. Our new research finds the trend toward greater automation will be especially challenging for women. On average, women face an 11 percent risk of losing their jobs due to automation, compared to 9 percent of their male counterparts... We find that women’s jobs have a 70 percent or higher probability of automation... Our analysis shows that differences in routineness of job tasks exacerbate gender inequality in returns to labor. Even after taking into account such factors as differences in skill, experience and choice of occupation, nearly 5 percent of the wage gap between women and men is because women perform more routine job tasks... In advanced and emerging economies, which are experiencing rapid aging, jobs are likely to grow in traditionally female-dominated sectors such as health, and social services―jobs requiring cognitive and interpersonal skills and thus less prone to automation... Governments need to enact policies that foster gender equality and empowerment in the changing landscape of work:

• Provide women with the right skills...
• Close gender gaps in leadership positions...
• Bridge the digital gender divide...
• Ease transitions for workers