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Article

5 Apr 2019

Author:
Ariane Hegewisch, Chandra Childers & Heidi Hartmann, Institute for Women's Policy Research

USA: Study explores impacts of automation & technological change on the future of work for women

"Women, automation, and the future of work," 13 March, 2019 

Automation, artificial intelligence, and other technological changes are already affecting the number and quality of jobs... Change is likely to be particularly profound for workers in middle and lower skilled occupations where new technologies are more likely to displace than complement human labor... Given that women and men often work in different occupations and given that women are much more likely than men to do unpaid care work... any analyses and public policies developed to address technological change need to take account of gender differences.

... [Key findings include]:

  • Given job segregation in the U.S. labor market, women are substantially more likely than men to be in occupations with both the lowest and the highest risk of technological substitution... 
  • Women make up just under half (47 percent) of the workforce, but they are 58 percent of workers at the highest risk of automation... 
  • Automation will affect men the most in low-earning occupations, while women’s risk is more equally spread across better- and lower-paid occupations, indicating that women’s access to jobs that pay well will be particularly affected...