When it comes to field of technology, there is an evident lack of gender diversity. As the demand for AI and tech based jobs continue to increase, here is till a largely overlooked talent pool. “In 2020, women represented roughly 47 percent of the US labor force.” This number is outrageously low and does not correlate to the amount of women that are actually available for these kinds of jobs with graduate degrees.
More specifically, women represent only about 26% of the workforce with AI positions. This gap and lack of gender diversity can lead to businesses severely harming themselves. Multiple data studies have shown that having more women in this industry can only further benefit the business due to the skills that they bring. New and disruptive technology impacts the whole world, yet the teams behind it don’t equally represent the society they are making this for.
Companies with increasingly diverse and inclusive work cultures have proved to have a more productive work environment, translating into more innovation in the workforce, better products and a competitive advantage over rivals in the field, With AI especially, being a new and developing field, having as diverse a team as possible is what will have the largest impact and advancement in the research behind it. Diversity includes not just gender, but race, socioeconomic backgrounds, ability, experience, just to name a few.
it brings about the question of why this gender gap still exists? There has been an immense amount of research over the years on this issue, yet it is still a very prominent topic in the workforce.
References:
https://www.wired.com/story/artificial-intelligence-researchers-gender-imbalance/
https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/consulting/articles/state-of-women-in-ai-today.html
