Women Make Up Just a Quarter of New AI Hires, LinkedIn Research Finds

Women accounted for about a quarter of new AI hires over the past year, compared with half of hires outside AI, according to LinkedIn research cited in The Guardian’s October 4 reporting. The gap comes as AI job postings grow and those roles command a substantial pay premium.

The pay premium is unevenly shared

LinkedIn’s research found that AI job postings had doubled since 2023. Roles involving AI paid more than twice as much on average as those without it. But entering the field does not mean women are reaching the same kinds of work as men.

Sarah Steinberg, LinkedIn’s head of global public policy partnerships, said women in AI are disproportionately concentrated in lower-paying jobs, including data annotation. Across AI occupations, men’s median pay was $45,000 higher than women’s. The Guardian attributes part of that difference to the types of jobs each group holds—not simply different pay for identical work.

Outside the AI workforce, LinkedIn also found women more likely to hold jobs with high exposure to AI disruption, such as customer service. That finding concerns vulnerability to changing work, rather than a tally of jobs already lost.

Fast hiring, familiar networks

Brenda Darden Wilkerson, president of women-in-tech nonprofit AnitaB.org, described a recruiting process that has not kept pace with the industry’s growth. Companies are hiring quickly, she told the Guardian, but still drawing candidates from familiar networks, referrals and filters. In her view, those channels have not given women equal exposure to opportunities.

The Guardian’s interviews also describe barriers beyond recruitment. Urvashi Batra, co-founder and CEO of AI platform Prioriwise, said investors take her less seriously than her male co-founder. The pair have found they are more likely to secure investment when he delivers the pitch, she said. That is her account of fundraising, not a measured explanation for the hiring gap.

Keeping up requires support

Jayeeta Putatunda, an AI engineering lead at investment firm Turing, described another pressure: staying current. She said being the only female engineer on a team is not uncommon, mentorship can be scarce, and a culture of 12-hour workdays can accompany the effort to keep up.

After four months of maternity leave, Putatunda returned to changed frameworks and models and found catching up overwhelming. Supportive colleagues and a husband who shared childcare made that return possible, she said. Her explanation for women leaving AI was not a lack of interest or ability, but a lack of the support that makes keeping pace possible.