{
  "title": "Gender, Technology, and the Future of Work",
  "publication": "Staff Discussion Notes, October 8, 2018",
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/en/publications/staff-discussion-notes/issues/2018/10/09/gender-technology-and-the-future-of-work-46236",
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  "summary": "New technologies?digitalization, artificial intelligence, and machine learning?are changing the way work gets done at an unprecedented rate. Helping people adapt to a fast-changing world of work and ameliorating its deleterious impacts will be the defining challenge of our time.",
  "sections": [
    {
      "heading": "Executive summary and central findings",
      "content": "- New technologies—digitalization, artificial intelligence, and machine learning—are changing the way work gets done at an unprecedented rate.\n- Women, on average, perform more routine tasks than men across all sectors and occupations—tasks that are most prone to automation.\n- Given the current state of technology, the study estimates that 26 million female jobs in 30 countries (28 OECD member countries, Cyprus, and Singapore) are at a high risk of being displaced by technology (i.e., facing higher than 70 percent likelihood of being automated) within the next two decades.\n- Female workers face a higher risk of automation compared to male workers: 11 percent of the female workforce, relative to 9 percent of the male workforce.\n- There is significant heterogeneity in automation risk across sectors and countries.\n- Extrapolating the results yields around 180 million female jobs at high risk of being displaced globally."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Distributional patterns and vulnerable groups",
      "content": "- Workers disproportionately exposed to automation:\n  - Less well-educated female workers.\n  - Older female workers (aged 40 and above).\n  - Female workers in low-skill clerical, service, and sales positions.\n- Exposure is driven by task composition: higher prevalence of routine tasks among female workers across sectors and occupations increases automation vulnerability."
    },
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      "heading": "Policy implications and recommendations",
      "content": "- Endow women with required skills to adapt to technological change:\n  - Invest in training and lifelong learning focused on non-routine cognitive and socioemotional skills.\n- Close gender gaps in leadership positions to improve representation in decision-making around technology adoption.\n- Bridge the digital gender divide to ensure access to technology and digital skills:\n  - Leverage ongoing digital transformation, which could confer greater flexibility in work arrangements, benefiting women.\n- Ease transitions for older and low-skilled female workers:\n  - Support measures that facilitate re-skilling, job search, and mobility for those at high risk of displacement.\n\n---\n\n Content in this bundle\n\n- Staff Discussion Note\n  - Staff Discussion Note (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n  - Staff Discussion Note (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n\n---\n\nSource: https://www.imf.org/en/publications/staff-discussion-notes/issues/2018/10/09/gender-technology-and-the-future-of-work-46236"
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    "Authors: Mariya Brussevich, Era Dabla-Norris, Christine Kamunge, Pooja Karnane, Salma Khalid, Kalpana Kochhar",
    "Published: October 8, 2018",
    "Series: Staff Discussion Notes",
    "DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781484379769.006",
    "New technologies—digitalization, artificial intelligence, and machine learning—are changing the way work gets done at an unprecedented rate.",
    "Women, on average, perform more routine tasks than men across all sectors and occupations—tasks that are most prone to automation.",
    "Given the current state of technology, the study estimates that 26 million female jobs in 30 countries (28 OECD member countries, Cyprus, and Singapore) are at a high risk of being displaced by technology (i.e., facing higher than 70 percent likelihood of being automated) within the next two decades.",
    "Female workers face a higher risk of automation compared to male workers: 11 percent of the female workforce, relative to 9 percent of the male workforce.",
    "There is significant heterogeneity in automation risk across sectors and countries.",
    "Extrapolating the results yields around 180 million female jobs at high risk of being displaced globally.",
    "Workers disproportionately exposed to automation:",
    "Exposure is driven by task composition: higher prevalence of routine tasks among female workers across sectors and occupations increases automation vulnerability.",
    "Endow women with required skills to adapt to technological change:",
    "Close gender gaps in leadership positions to improve representation in decision-making around technology adoption.",
    "Bridge the digital gender divide to ensure access to technology and digital skills:",
    "Ease transitions for older and low-skilled female workers:",
    "**Staff Discussion Note**"
  ],
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