Women make up only about a quarter of new AI hires, LinkedIn finds

Adding recruits who are a quarter women to a workforce that is a third women pulls the average down. Women hold about one-third of US tech jobs ^[9], roughly eight points above their share of new AI hires ^[3]. AI job postings have doubled since 2023 ^[5], so the lower-share stream is growing. The comparison is approximate. The Guardian's account of the report does not say whether LinkedIn's hiring figures are global or US-only, or how they have moved year on year.

Executive hiring is narrower still. The 13% share of AI executive hires ^[2] is about half of women's share of AI hiring overall ^[2]. That cohort is being picked in a sector where women already leave at much higher rates than men, according to research cited by the Guardian, citing non-inclusive cultures and barriers to advancement ^[10].

The strongest case against worry rests on how new the field is. As the Guardian puts it, nobody has a decade of experience with a model developed a year ago, so in theory the field should be more meritocratic ^[17]. Urvashi Batra, co-founder and chief executive of Prioriwise, an AI platform for IT service providers, has heard that case. "A lot of people say: 'Oh, AI is lowering barriers, it's equalizing the playing field for women,'" she said. "I actually think it's the opposite." ^[11] She said she and her male co-founder have learned that investors are more likely to back them when he does the pitching ^[12].

But the tools change so quickly that anyone who takes leave falls behind. Jayeeta Putatunda, an AI engineering lead at investment firm Turing, said a culture of 12-hour days to keep up was not uncommon ^[15]. "I went on maternity leave for four months, and by the time I came back, there were completely different frameworks and levels of models," she said ^[13]. Catching up was possible only with supportive co-workers and a husband who split childcare equitably, she said ^[18]. "That is one way women get pushed out of AI," she said. "They don't lack the interest or ability to keep up. They may lack the infrastructure that makes keeping up possible." ^[14]

The hiring skew also shows up in pay. For employers, the trade-off is speed against breadth. Part of the $45,000 median gap inside AI ^[6] comes from job mix: Sarah Steinberg, head of global public policy partnerships at LinkedIn, said women in AI are disproportionately in low-paying roles such as data annotation ^[7]. Employers decide the job mix. Hiring finished specialists from outside fills AI seats this quarter, from a stream in which women are about one recruit in four ^[1]. Moving staff out of exposed jobs such as customer service into AI work is slower. It also draws on the roles LinkedIn found women are more likely to hold ^[3].

"AI is creating some of the fastest growing, highest paying and most consequential jobs in the global economy," Steinberg said. "Women are just strikingly underrepresented." ^[8] Brenda Darden Wilkerson, who is president of AnitaB.org, a non-profit that works for women's advancement in technology jobs, was blunter: "What we're witnessing is a sort of backsliding." ^[16]