2023-08-03 14:55:11
The irruption of the artificial intelligence (AI) threatens the most women. According to a recent study by the McKinsey Global Institute, more women than men they will lose their employment at the end of this decade due to the automation his Job positions.
The report indicates that the increasing digitization of the work environment will impact productive sectors such as customer service, food or office support, eminently occupied by women. To make matters worse, they also occupy the lowest paid jobs —such as retail sales or cashiers—, which will negatively influence their affectation.
The study, focused on the working population of USA, concludes that almost a third of the hours worked in the country could be automated in the next seven years. This means that, in 2030, some 12 million people will have to change jobs, as some will see their demand reduced and others could become obsolete due to the impact of the IA.
Most of them will be women, who will have to acquire new skills to operate in other industries that will demand more professionals. It is the case of health or the professions STEMthe academic disciplines of science, technology, engineering y mathematics. This last field is eminently masculine, although public administrations such as the Catalan one are taking measures to try to reverse the situation by encouraging these studies among the female public. In Catalonia, only 8.6% of professionals in this sector are women.
Problems for the poorest
The McKinsey Global Institute study warns that workers with the lowest wages will be the most vulnerable to the transformation of the current economic model. Those who earn less than 38,200 dollars (almost 35,000 euros) a year could represent up to 80% of job changes.
Once again, in that most precarious section of the system there are more women than men. However, the employment impact of AI will also affect other profiles and social groups more strongly. It is the case of workers hispanicof those who do not have university studiesof the youngest and also of the most adults.
The study coincides with other publications that also point to the greater impact that this industrial Revolution will have for women. The Spanish economist already warned a couple of years ago Lucia Velasco in the book ‘Is it going to replace a algorithm?’. “Women hold the lowest-paid jobs. And these are the ones who will suffer the most from digitization,” she told EL PERIÓDICO, from the Prensa Ibérica group, in an interview.
The authors of the report note that the integration of AI into work environments can streamline existing job tasks or create new job opportunities. However, these do not have to be positive. In statements to ‘The Washington Post’, Kerry McInerney, a researcher at the Leverhulme Center for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge, warns that the most precarious workers may “see themselves pushed into areas such as data labelling”, whose psychological impact it can be “very harmful”.
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