Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) promises to liberate workers from repetitive tasks, but its impact on Europe’s labour market is far from straightforward. Beyond productivity gains, a critical question is emerging: will AI help close the persistent gender gaps in employment and pay, or will it create new forms of inequality?
Across the European Union, the numbers paint a stark picture. In 2024, the employment rate for men stood at 80.8 per cent, while for women it was just 70.8 per cent, according to Eurostat. Women also faced a slightly higher unemployment rate (6.1 per cent versus 5.7 per cent for men) and earned about 12 per cent less in 2023. As AI technologies become more embedded in workplaces from Berlin to Barcelona, understanding how they affect women is urgent.
Occupational exposure: a mixed picture
Research from the OECD and the European Central Bank (ECB) suggests that men and women face roughly the same overall occupational exposure to AI. However, the distribution is uneven. Women are heavily underrepresented in the jobs with the very highest AI exposure, such as IT professionals (only 19 per cent are women) and chief executives. Conversely, they dominate roles with the lowest AI exposure, like cleaning and helping (82 per cent women).
“Women and men tend to have different occupations, and these occupations may be affected differently by AI,” explained Marguerita Lane, a labour market economist at the OECD. She noted that women are a minority in the AI workforce itself—those developing and maintaining the technology—while forming a majority in clerical positions that could be particularly vulnerable to automation from generative AI. “So we could see a gender divide in terms of who is making the important choices around AI development, and whose livelihood could be significantly disrupted,” she added.
The OECD’s AI exposure indicator, which measures the potential for AI to perform tasks within a job, does not automatically predict negative outcomes. High exposure can mean either augmentation or displacement. Historically, AI exposure has not led to aggregate negative employment or wage effects, but the current wave of generative AI may differ.
Female employment rising in AI-exposed roles
An ECB working paper analysing 16 European countries between 2011 and 2019 found that, on average, female employment actually increased in occupations more exposed to AI. Stefania Albanesi from Miami Herbert Business School, the paper’s lead author, pointed out that women were able to upskill and thrive during the automation wave of the 1990s, thanks to their higher educational achievements. “Women’s higher investments in education compared to men are likely to temper the potentially negative impact of these technologies on female employment,” she said.
This suggests that education and labour force participation are key factors enabling women to benefit from AI diffusion. However, the picture is not uniformly rosy. When Lane and her colleagues surveyed workers in finance and manufacturing three years ago, they found that AI users were more likely to be male and higher educated, even within the same occupation. “This raises the question of whether lower engagement with AI could lead to women being left behind,” she warned.
Policymakers across Europe are taking note. The European Commission has proposed an AI Act to regulate high-risk applications, and member states are grappling with how to ensure that the benefits of AI are widely shared. Initiatives like the Swedish app Accord, which aims to balance household chores, highlight broader efforts to address gender inequality that AI could either reinforce or alleviate.
Meanwhile, the rise of AI-generated deepfake pornography, as reported in our coverage, shows how AI can also be weaponised against women, straining Europe’s legal frameworks. These parallel developments underscore the complexity of AI’s gender impact.
Ultimately, the outcome will depend on deliberate policy choices. As Pawel Adrjan, director of economic research at Indeed, put it: “Nearly every job will be impacted by AI at some point, but the positive is that the need for human intelligence will remain a strong requirement.” Ensuring that women are not left behind will require targeted investments in education, reskilling, and inclusive AI development—so that the technology becomes a leveller, not a trap.
