AI and Digital Technology: Gender Gaps in Higher Education

Carlos Victoria, J. Ignacio Conde-Ruiz and Juan-José Ganuza
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Manu García

No 1450, Working Papers from Barcelona School of Economics

Abstract: This article examines gender gaps in higher education in Spain from 1985 to 2023 in the context of technological advancements, particularly digitalization and artificial intelligence (AI). We identify significant disparities, with women over represented in health-related fields and underrepresented in STEM disciplines. This imbalance is concerning as STEM fields offer better employment prospects and higher salaries. We analyze university degrees' exposure to technological change through Routine Task Intensity (RTI) and AI exposure indices. Our findings show that women are more enrolled in degrees with high RTI, prone to automation, and less in degrees with high AI exposure, likely to benefit from technological advancements. This suggests technological change could widen existing labor market gender gaps. To address this, we recommend policies to boost female participation in STEM fields and adapt educational curricula to reduce routine tasks and enhance AI complementarities, ensuring equitable labor market outcomes amid technological change.

Keywords: gender gaps; technological change; STEM; artificial intelligence; higher education; self-actualization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I23 I26 J16 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ain, nep-cse, nep-edu, nep-lab and nep-tid
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://bw.bse.eu/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/1450-file.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: AI and Digital Technology: Gender Gaps in Higher Education (2024)
Working Paper: AI and Digital Technology: Gender Gaps in Higher Education (2024)
Working Paper: AI and digital technology: gender gaps in higher education (2024)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bge:wpaper:1450

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Barcelona School of Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Bruno Guallar ().