Is Technology Widening the Gender Gap? Automation and the Future of Female Employment

Abstract

Using individual level data on task composition at work for 30 advanced and emerging economies, we find that women, on average, perform more routine tasks than men?tasks that are more prone to automation. To quantify the impact on jobs, we relate data on task composition at work to occupation level estimates of probability of automation, controlling for a rich set of individual characteristics (e.g., education, age, literacy and numeracy skills). Our results indicate that female workers are at a significantly higher risk for displacement by automation than male workers, with 11 percent of the female workforce at high risk of being automated given the current state of technology, albeit with significant cross-country heterogeneity. The probability of automation is lower for younger cohorts of women, and for those in managerial positions.

Keywords: Labor force participation, Labor market flexibility, Labor productivity, Human capital, Social safety nets, Automation, Technological Change, Jobs, Female Labor Force, Occupational Choice, Gender Equality, RTI, female worker, gender gap, significance level

JEL Classification: E24, J16, J23, J24, O33, E2, E01, Z13, O4