For almost 30 years, women have stuck around a 39 percent mark on the global labor force; advances towards equality between women and women in the workplace are glacial. A new game changer is now in the form of technology for automation and artificial intelligence. Could these technologies be part of the workforce breakthrough that women need, open up new options and reduce the gender gap in employment? Or are these technologies going to leave women behind even more? Automation will revolutionize the work we know when predictions are right. But it’s hard to determine which jobs are going to be affected, and how many. Although a major discussion is taking place on just those matters, the automation process often ignores the promise of equality between men and women.
Automation could be useful for families with time constraints, i.e. all families, who strive to balance competing requirements of full-time jobs and schools with a secure household. However, women like Bowsher might be the largest beneficiary. The reason is that, according to the most current census data from Statistics Canada, women continually take on more home jobs than men — over 50 percent more. Combined with their real paid employment, women work longer than males, while working the types of occupations that commonly induce burnout — less-paid positions and more part-time so that they can still do more unpaid work at home. However, it is not guaranteed to change sensitivity just to rely on the emergence of new technologies. James Young, a University of Winnipeg professor in IT, points out that when first debuted microwaves, they were advertised for guys who had no other way of preparing dining as a great technology toy.
There are still ways that AI technologies can mitigate mental stress, like automating domestic procurement, appointment planning, and family schedule management, to keep us away from the AI robot, which completes our tasks for us. AI could in the future help to alleviate the strain of management of various interfaces by acting as interpreter and central coordinator of many of the household’s apps and platforms. Type Alexa tools are early instances and their potential to impact this technology. These technologies should alleviate the stress of balance between home and work, facilitating demands and difficulties for women.