The AI industry is booming. Women are getting left behind

The piece documents how rapid growth in artificial intelligence is producing high-paying, fast-growing roles while women are sharply underrepresented and concentrated in positions vulnerable to automation. LinkedIn research shows women made about a quarter of new AI hires last year versus roughly half in non-AI roles, and only 13% of AI executive hires; AI job postings have doubled since 2023 and pay, on average, more than twice non-AI roles. Women in AI are overrepresented in low-paid tasks such as data annotation and customer service, and across AI occupations men have a roughly $45,000 higher median pay, driven in part by the types of roles each gender holds.

Causes include entrenched referral networks, investor and workplace biases that favor male founders and engineers, and a dearth of mentorship and supportive infrastructure that penalizes time out for caregiving; the breakneck pace and overtime culture in AI make reentry difficult after leaves. Corporate diversity programs have been scaled back amid political and legal pressure, weakening institutional routes to parity. The result is not just a wage gap but a looming power gap: if women are excluded from building AI, they risk missing a major source of economic mobility and influence in shaping the technology.