AI Boom Widens the Gender Divide, LinkedIn Study Shows
Women hold just 13% of top AI roles at AI companies globally, with the gap extending from hiring to pay and leadership.
Topics
News
- Temasek, Seraphim Back Pixxel in $100 Million Round
- UN Rights Chief Warns Advanced AI Could Threaten Humanity
- Tata-owned JLR to Cut About 4,000 Bobs Amid Tariff, China Pressure
- Anthropic Walks Away From $6 Billion Decart Deal
- Hyundai India Targets 20% Women in Executive Workforce by 2030
- Security Breach Drains $320 Million in Bitcoin From Liquid Network
The artificial intelligence boom is creating some of the fastest-growing and highest-paying jobs in the labor market, but women remain sharply underrepresented in the technical and leadership positions driving it, according to new LinkedIn research.
The global analysis, The Triple Penalty: Mapping the Gender Gap in the AI Economy, found that women hold just 13.3% of C-suite AI positions at AI companies across 27 countries. By comparison, they account for 45.1% of non-C-suite workers in non-AI roles at companies outside the AI sector.
The gap appears well before the C-suite. Women account for 38.5% of director-level and higher positions across the countries studied, but only 31.2% of comparable AI leadership roles. They are less represented in AI jobs and leadership positions in all 27 countries examined.
LinkedIn calls the overlap a “triple penalty”: lower representation in senior positions, AI jobs and AI companies.
The AI-company effect was present in 24 of the 27 countries.
After accounting for differences in country, role type and company type, women’s representation was 15.3 percentage points lower in C-suite positions than in non-C-suite jobs. The gap was 9.7 percentage points for AI roles and 5.2 points for jobs at AI companies.
The stakes are also financial.
A separate LinkedIn report released alongside the global study, The AI Talent Divide: Strong Demand and Pay, Uneven Returns, found that US AI job postings have doubled since 2023. The typical AI posting lists about $177,000 in annual compensation, compared with $80,000 for a non-AI role.
Women, however, accounted for only 26% of new US AI hires in 2025, compared with 50% of hires into non-AI occupations. Their representation was lower still in several of the better-paid AI jobs, including Head of AI at 20%, Director of AI at 26% and Member of Technical Staff at 18%.
Data annotation was one of the exceptions. Women accounted for more than half of hires in those roles, making it the most gender-balanced AI occupation studied. It was also the lowest-paid.
The pattern extends across industries and company sizes. Women were less represented in executive roles in every industry LinkedIn examined, while smaller AI firms generally had fewer women at the top. They held 11.8% of C-suite AI roles at smaller AI companies, compared with 21.6% at larger ones.
India broadly fits the global pattern. Women hold 12.2% of C-suite AI roles at AI companies, compared with 29.3% of non-C-suite AI positions at those firms.
India was, however, one of just three countries, along with Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates, where LinkedIn did not find the separate AI-company penalty seen elsewhere. The gaps associated with AI roles and seniority remained.
The Triple Penalty draws on LinkedIn data covering tens of millions of workers across 27 countries. Its C-suite analysis included workers at firms with at least 50 LinkedIn members.
The AI Talent Divide uses US job postings and member employment histories, including compensation data from postings listed between 2023 and 2026.
