The AI Era Could Catapult Women To Leadership If We Tackle 3 Barriers
This article originally appeared on Forbes.com.
The rapid rise of AI has put us at many crossroads. One of the most consequential is its impact on gender equity in leadership. AI could be a historic career accelerator for women leaders—or a setback. It all hinges on what we collectively decide to do now.
There is a rapidly closing window to ensure gender parity in leadership as the AI revolution plows forward. Without strategic intervention, the existing gaps for women—especially leaders—will only widen. Here are the potential upsides to prioritizing this opportunity.
The AI Opportunity For Women Leaders
The percentage of women in managerial roles is on the rise—increasing from 29% in 1980 to 46% in 2023, according to the Pew Research Center’s analysis of the 2023 American Community Survey. Despite the overall “drop to the top” (the steady decline in women’s representation at each level of the org chart), a white paper by the World Economic Forum, "Gender Parity in the Intelligent Age," shows a rare bright spot. In science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, women hold a higher share of director roles than manager roles, though representation drops significantly from director to vice-president.
These trends suggest that gender parity in leadership is still possible—but only if AI is intentionally shaped and deployed to unlock opportunities for all. Leaders must make structural changes that widen access to senior roles, while women must be ready to seize those opportunities. AI can catapult women into higher-level leadership roles (both in and outside of STEM) by automating and delegating routine tasks to AI, thereby freeing up time for high-value activities such as strategic networking, deal-making, rain-making and long-term visioning. AI has also created entirely new sectors, which means more opportunities for women to take on leadership roles in these new economic arenas.
All of that is hope-inducing, as gender parity at all leadership levels drives innovation, which is especially needed in an age of rapid tech transformation.
This brings us to the risks.
Where AI Could Set Women Leaders Back
TIME reported in “Why So Many Women Are Quitting the Workforce” that the labor-force participation rate for women—especially women with bachelor’s degrees—is falling at an alarming rate, after peaking for the latter group at 70.3% in September 2024. The gap in workforce participation between women with and without a college degree is also widening, a Third Way analysis of the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey reveals. And the fact that women tend to occupy roles at greater risk of AI disruption (where the function could be eliminated, such as middle management) and are less present in roles suited to AI augmentation (where the technology can enhance productivity and impact, such as with AI engineering roles) does not bode well.
If we want to set ourselves up for a future of economic success, we must fully leverage our entire workforce. To do that, we must address three urgent challenges.
Three Priorities To Advance Women’s Leadership In The Age Of AI
The following priorities can help ensure women not only stay in the leadership pipeline but also rise to the highest levels.
First, as the WEF white paper recommends, the imperative goes beyond eliminating AI-related bias. It means using AI to build better recruitment and evaluation systems to hire and promote overlooked talent and open the pathways to leadership. It means assembling inclusive teams and implementing regular audits to catch and correct bias in algorithms before they affect hiring, promotion or pay decisions.
Second, we must eliminate the “drop to the top” for women leaders. Increase effective sponsorship of entry-level women into middle management and then into senior leadership—including in AI-integrated sectors to prevent long-term “social and economic AI disenfranchisement,” as coined in the WEF white paper.
Third, reinstate flexible and hybrid workplace policies. TIME cites the rollback of flexible, remote and hybrid work as the primary driver of women leaving the workforce—an issue likely to intensify as AI transforms how work is done. Flexibility alone isn’t enough—promotion criteria must avoid penalizing remote or hybrid workers and career pathways should accommodate different life and caregiving stages without stalling advancement.
Employers who take these steps to address AI bias head-on, eliminate structural pipeline disparities and preserve flexibility in how and where leaders work will retain women in leadership. And doing so will future-proof their companies by fully leveraging the talent and potential of our entire workforce for the AI age and beyond.
