Source: IMF Staff Discussion Note 18/07
               Note: Routinization Levels for Women are Highest in Eastern and Southern Europe and Lowest in Scandinavia and Central Europe.
               RTI index is calculated at the female level using information on routine, abstract, and manual tasks performed.

The study estimates that about 26 million female workers in the 30 countries covered are at high risk of being displaced by automation—especially less-educated and older women in low-skilled positions. The researchers also established that the degree of routinization is a factor that helps explain gender wage gaps.

Ms. Dabla-Norris concluded that rethinking policies will be necessary to ensure that technological change operates to help narrow gender gaps in labor markets. Governments will need to act in at least four areas: empowering women with skills, closing gender gaps in leadership positions, investing in capital infrastructure to ensure equal access to finance and connectivity, and easing transitions by providing support for workers to acquire new skills and building effective social protection systems.

During the highly interactive Q&A session, among the questions asked was whether the new jobs created would mitigate the impact on women, and what would be the appropriate policy response to the challenges posed by automation for a specific country. Ms. Dabla-Norris emphasized that seizing job opportunities offered by new technologies will require policies that help workers to adapt to the changing environment. For example, women are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)—the sectors where countries can expect job growth and where technological change can be complementary to human skills. Prioritizing gender inclusion in STEM fields can therefore help break down gender stereotypes and help empower women. She concluded that specific policy packages would depend on country circumstances: even though it was found that women are universally more vulnerable to losing jobs to automation, the study found significant cross-country heterogeneity in women’s exposure to routine job tasks. This reflects country differences in the structure of production, the technologies adopted, and the flexibility of their labor markets.

Asel Isakova, Senior Economist, JVI