The transformation artificial intelligence is creating in the labor market brings with it new risks and opportunities for women's employment. Sharing her assessments on the subject, Asst. Prof. Selda Tunç Subaşı, Director of the Istanbul Gelişim University (IGU) Center for Gender Studies, drew attention to AI's potential to deepen existing inequalities, while noting that with the right education and employment policies, new career paths could also open up for women.
"Artificial Intelligence Is Not Creating a New Inequality from Scratch"
Noting that women's concentration in routinizable jobs more open to automation, such as secretarial work, office services, human resources, accounting, and call centers, is a result of gender-based occupational segregation that has persisted for many years, Tunç Subaşı stated that the possibility of AI affecting women's employment more than men's must also be assessed through this structure: "I believe it would be wrong to assess the possibility of artificial intelligence affecting women's employment more than men's merely as a natural consequence of technological development. The real issue here is that the existing labor market is already organized on the basis of gender inequality. So artificial intelligence is not actually creating a new inequality from scratch, but it carries the potential to deepen gender inequalities."Alongside Job Loss, AI May Also Bring the Risk of Precarious Work
Noting that the risks AI could pose for women workers should not be assessed solely through the complete disappearance of certain jobs, Tunç Subaşı said that the transfer of certain tasks within occupations to AI could also change working conditions.Asst. Prof. Selda Tunç Subaşı, Director of the IGU Center for Gender Studies, stated: "To my mind, what is even more important is the fragmentation of tasks within these occupations, the transfer of certain functions to artificial intelligence, and the resulting possibility of women being pushed into positions that are more precarious, lower-paid, or offer more limited career prospects. This possibility could pull women's existing employment rates down even further and render women's labor invisible."
Drawing attention to the fact that reading technological transformation solely through threats would also be incomplete, Tunç Subaşı noted that AI's taking on of routine and repetitive tasks could allow workers to move toward areas requiring analysis, creativity, communication, problem-solving, and decision-making.
"AI Can Create Opportunities for Transition into New Fields of Work"
Expressing that strengthening women's access to digital skills, AI literacy, and reskilling programs could open the way to new occupations and career fields, Tunç Subaşı stressed that the assumption that opportunities will be shared automatically and equally would not be correct.Tunç Subaşı said: "Women need to take part not only as workers who use artificial intelligence, but also in the processes of developing, designing, and governing these technologies. Otherwise, existing gender inequalities may be reproduced in the digital world." She added: "If education, reskilling, and employment policies are built on the basis of gender equality, artificial intelligence can create not merely a risk of job loss for women, but important opportunities for transition into more qualified and new fields of work."
"Telling Women Merely That They 'Need to Learn New Skills' Is Not Enough"
Noting that preparing women working particularly in service, office, and administrative jobs for the AI transformation should not be seen as a matter of individual adaptation, Tunç Subaşı said that women's concentration in automation-prone jobs is related less to individual preferences than to gender-based occupational segregation in the labor market.Stressing for this reason that the solution cannot be limited to giving workers new skills, Tunç Subaşı said: "Of course, developing AI literacy, enhancing digital skills, and expanding reskilling programs are extremely important. But these trainings need to be genuinely accessible for women. It is critical that institutions and the public sector establish supportive mechanisms so that women do not become disadvantaged once again in accessing these transformation programs due to care responsibilities, time poverty, or economic conditions."
Also stressing that women's existing experience and skills need to be taken into account alongside the AI transformation, Tunç Subaşı stated: "What needs to be done is to support this accumulated expertise with AI tools, and to develop models that enable workers to transition into more qualified roles rather than replacing them entirely. For this reason, the fundamental goal should be to make women active subjects of this transformation, rather than placing them in a passive position vis-à-vis artificial intelligence."
AI Education at Universities Must Not Remain Limited to Technical Skills
Expressing that the AI transformation also necessitates comprehensive change in higher education, Tunç Subaşı noted that it will not be sufficient for universities to merely add a few AI courses to their curricula. Drawing attention to the fact that the structure of occupations, ways of working, and the competencies expected of workers are changing, Tunç Subaşı stressed that AI literacy needs to spread across all disciplines.Tunç Subaşı said: "I am not talking only about students learning to use AI tools. They also need to learn how these technologies work, what limitations they have, how the information they produce is to be questioned, and how their ethical, social, and economic consequences are to be assessed. In other words, technical usage skills and critical thinking must be developed together."
"The Principle of Gender Equality Must Become Part of the Curriculum"
Noting that universities also have an important role in preventing the risks AI could pose for women's employment, Tunç Subaşı stated that how technological transformation could affect existing inequalities needs to be discussed within the educational process: "To remove the barriers before the risks artificial intelligence poses to women's employment, the principle of gender equality must become part of the curriculum. Universities must not only prepare students for technological transformation — they must also open up for discussion how this transformation could reproduce existing inequalities."Drawing attention to the fact that the future of artificial intelligence will not be determined by technology experts alone, IGU Center for Gender Studies Director Asst. Prof. Selda Tunç Subaşı stressed that the societal effects of technology are the common concern of different disciplines. Noting that the curriculum transformation to be carried out at universities must go beyond technical skills, Tunç Subaşı drew attention to the importance of addressing the process extending from education to employment with an egalitarian and inclusive approach, so that women's stronger participation in the changing labor market of the AI age can be ensured.
