Before diving into the details about the pending challenges regarding women's jobs, take a look at the International Women's Day Doodle video for this year. Celebrate and acknowledge outstanding women. Ah hem - that would be ALL women.
Technology's Devastating Impact on Women's Jobs
Topics like are never pleasant to examine, but looking away from them won't change reality. Awareness is the first step towards change, right? Since the changes and challenges are already in progress, it's time to determine next steps.
As I reviewed the recent Oxford study which concludes that 47 percent of US jobs may become computerized in 10 or 20 years, I wondered about impacted demographics like as gender, age, and race - with a sharp focus on women. A close look at data tracked by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics for 2010 (the same year used in the study) shows how devastating the reality may be for women if a fundamental shift in skills doesn't occur.
According to our estimate, 47 percent of the total US employment is in the high risk category, meaning that associated occupations are potentially automatable some unspecified number of years, perhaps a decade or two.
C. Frey, M. Osborne; Oxford University (September 2013
Why my focus on women in particular? Well - because women's productivity is the backbone of the global workforce - clocking 66% of all working hours on the planet. Simply put women's productivity drives global economies.
Women perform 66 percent of the world’s work, and produce 50 percent of the food, yet earn only 10 percent of the income and own 1 percent of the property. Whether the issue is improving education in the developing world, or fighting global climate change, or addressing nearly any other challenge we face, empowering women is a critical part of the equation.
Former President Bill Clinton
...The challenges to gender equality just got a whole lot more complicated.
Disruptive Technologies Are Disrupting Women's Jobs
Disruptive technologies will impact the most susceptible occupations in services, sales, administration, construction, and transportation. Most of these jobs are currently performed by women.
- Services jobs are being replaced by personal and household robots at a pace of 15% to 20% per year.
- Sales and related administration jobs are rapidly succumbing to automation and software advancements.
- Industrial robots may automate 15% to 25% of tasks associated with jobs in construction, maintenance, and manufacturing by 2025.
And on the story goes...
A straight-across look at the percentages by gender and job category show significant challenges for women who hold a majority of roles in sales, office, and services occupations. As if the flags weren't red enough in general, they are particularly red for women.
SALES-OFC - Sales and office occupations
SVCS - Services occupations
MGMT-PROF - Management, Professional, Related occupations
PROD-TX-MAT - Production, Transportation, Material Moving occupations
NR-CONST-MNT - Natural Resources, Construction, and Maintenance occupations
Now what? It's time to retool for the knowledge economy.
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