When AI Enters the Workplace, Who Faces Greater Risks? A Gendered Analysis

2026-09-18

AI Summary

研究探讨了AI进入职场后对性别差异的影响，使用职业特征与AI暴露度相关联的数据集分析发现女性在低技能、低收入岗位上面临更大的AI风险。

Abstract

Gender inequality remains a persistent structural feature of the labour market, shaping women's lifetime earnings and economic security. As artificial intelligence (AI) transforms organisational practices, there is growing concern that existing disparities may be unintentionally amplified through task automation, unequal access to upskilling opportunities, and differential returns obtained from technological change. In this paper, we examine how exposure to AI-driven innovation varies across male- and female-dominated occupations, with particular attention to differences across the skill and wage distribution. Using a novel dataset that links occupational characteristics to measures of AI exposure, we analyse how recent advances in Large Language Models (LLMs) and broader AI technologies are distributed across the labour market. Our findings show that, while AI exposure is generally concentrated in higher-skilled and higher-paid occupations for male-dominated occupations, female-dominated occupations display relatively uniform levels of exposure across both high-skilled, high-paid, and low-skilled, low-paid occupations. Moreover, we find that LLM-related exposure is higher in female-dominated occupations, while exposure to broader AI innovation remains more concentrated in male-dominated occupations. A triangulation of these results with existing literature suggests that women, particularly those in the most vulnerable positions (lower-skilled and lower-paid female-dominated occupations), may face greater exposure to forms of AI associated with task automation, job restructuring, reduction of wages and limited career progression.

Problem

• gender inequality
• artificial intelligence
• occupational risks
• task automation
• labour market

Innovation

• Large Language Models
• AI exposure
• gender inequality
• labour market
• occupational characteristics