Agenda

This WSIS stakeholder workshop will build on the findings of UNESCO reports on “The Effects of AI on the Working Lives of Women” and “Multistakeholder AI Development: 10 building blocks for inclusive policy design”. It aims at fostering important conversations about the impacts of the increasing use of advanced technology on women’s equality and how to equip policy makers with the necessary tools to promote gender equality at the national level.

Specifically, the workshop will cover six key elements related to AI and the working lives of women, which are: 

• Reskilling and upskilling women workers: AI is changing the labour market, bringing new skill demands to the workers of the future. How can policy makers close the gender digital divide and ensure women have the skills needed in a digital work force?
• Encouraging women in STEM: To get more women leading in AI and technological development, the education of women and girls in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields should be supported. How can this be done from a government perspective?
• Accounting for contextual and cultural complexity: With diverse labour markets, economies, cultures, and gender norms, AI-based tools and technologies will impact women’s work in a variety of ways across the globe. How can these contextual and cultural complexities be addressed when designing and implementing AI policy and regulation?
• Leveraging multi-stakeholder approaches: Governments, private sector companies, technical communities and academia need to engage and take responsibility surrounding the impact of AI tools and systems on women. How can governments ensure they create and promote policies that consider the potential impact of AI systems on vulnerable groups?
• Transforming negative gender norms: There is a powerful connection between norms and stereotypes surrounding women’s work and how these stereotypes are further shaped by, and encoded into, AI systems. What are potential threats of emerging technologies on women’s equality and what are best practices to tackle ensure inclusive digital transformation?
• Continuing applied research: More applied research is needed to show how AI systems are impacting work generally and women’s work in particular. Why is it advisable for governments to share information on how their AI systems function? What are current gaps that still need to be explored further through research? What role does Open Data play in this domain?

Session Goals: 

• Inform and foster conversations with key stakeholders about the impacts of emerging technology on women’s equality in education and the workplace.
• Identify capacity building needs of policy makers to ensure digital transformation is gender-inclusive
• Seek input from experts on successful capacity building approaches to ensure gender equality in policy making processes  
• Identify relevant action points and potential initiatives based on the report findings to translate principles into practice
• Identify capacity building needs of policy makers to ensure multistakeholder engagement in digital transformation processes
• Foster exchange between stakeholders on multistakeholder approaches to digital policy processes under a gender lense