Recognizing the importance of GenAI. Awareness is a key driver of adoption. Compared to men, senior women are equally or even more aware of the potential impact of their GenAI on job success, while junior women are less so. In fact, senior women in technical roles have a 10 point lead over their male counterparts. Their attitudes may correlate with pressure to overperform in an industry that is largely dominated by men. A female CIO of a semiconductor company said:[Senior women in tech] Although you have broken through barriers to reach your current position, you still feel the need to prove yourself and take more initiative than men to keep up with what is important to your career. [such as GenAI]”
Senior women in non-technical jobs appear to be looking ahead as well, as they have roughly equal status with their male counterparts. “Even in non-technical departments, the more senior you are, the more likely you are to be in the right rooms and understand what will be important in the future,” explains a female director at an IT services company.
In contrast, junior women lag behind their male colleagues in both job types (15 points behind technical jobs and 17 points behind non-technical jobs). And they are lower than senior women in technical and non-technical positions by a difference of 24 points and 31 points, respectively. By comparison, junior men in technical jobs are on par with senior men in those jobs, and only 13 points behind senior men in non-technical jobs. It is alarming to find that while all men have the same level of awareness of the importance of their GenAI to future career success, this is not the case for women. Two reasons we observed are that junior women do not have the same access as junior men to the networks and discussions where GenAI strategies are formed, and they are not equally represented in GenAI pilots and initiatives.
Confidence in GenAI skills. Senior women in technical roles outperform their male colleagues by 4 points on GenAI trust, while senior women in non-technical roles lag behind their male colleagues by 8 points, and junior women across all departments outperform their male colleagues by 7 points in trust. points, and is 11 points behind in the non-technical category. function.
This lack of confidence means that senior women in non-technical roles are lagging behind their male colleagues in implementing GenAI, fully aware and understanding that GenAI is essential to future success. This is the only attribute in our study that explains why we do what we do. These older women may have started with low confidence levels in their technology skills and may not have had the time needed to experiment with GenAI and build that confidence. A female CEO of a multinational SaaS company said: There needs to be a clear practical application that they can engage with. ”This is one of the many reasons she says that demands on your time can be a factor.
There are several possible reasons why junior women may lack confidence in their GenAI skills, but research shows that there are challenges in recognition and exposure for women in a field that is primarily dominated by men. For example, a 2018 Pew Research Center poll found that women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) jobs are seven times more likely than men to be treated as incompetent. I found out that it's highly sexual. Additionally, a December 2023 Gallup poll observed that women of all ages have significantly less exposure to STEM topics in school, particularly computer science.
Tolerance for risk. Senior women report similar or higher risk tolerance than their male peers in both technical and non-technical functions, while junior women lag behind their male peers (in technical and non-technical functions). 9 points for features and 16 points for non-technical features).
By breaking through barriers to reach her current position, the senior woman has learned how to take risks to succeed at work. In contrast, junior women in technology may feel they have less freedom to experiment, especially when working with nascent technologies. A female director at a leading AI company explains, “Younger women in tech may be more concerned than men about the limitations and risks of GenAI tools.”
A female vice president at a large enterprise technology company said this about young women outside of technology:[Junior women in nontech roles] Without clear policies, people may be less likely to take risks [in place]And limited technical know-how is an additional barrier. ”
way forward
If managed correctly, GenAI offers an opportunity to reduce the gender gap in the technology industry. But it requires action from both companies and the women who work in them. Companies ready to pilot and scale GenAI will be able to improve the technology industry by addressing three key root causes of gender disparity: perceived importance of GenAI, skills-related trust, and risk tolerance. can reduce the gender gap in Additionally, women can seize opportunities by actively working and experimenting with their GenAI.
