How Biased Algorithms Are Shaping Women's Lives

Artificial intelligence is quietly shaping everyday decisions — from who gets hired and promoted to who receives a loan or a medical diagnosis.

- TDG NETWORK

But as AI becomes more embedded in daily life, a troubling reality is emerging: when trained on biased data, technology can reproduce the very gender inequalities women have fought for decades to overcome.

"AI systems, learning from data filled with stereotypes, often reflect and reinforce gender biases," says Zinnya del Villar, a leading expert in responsible AI, in a recent conversation with UN Women. "These biases can limit opportunities and diversity, especially in decision-making, hiring, loan approvals and even legal judgments."

At the heart of AI lies data. Algorithms learn from past patterns — and when those patterns reflect a world where men dominated leadership roles and women were confined to caregiving professions, AI can absorb and repeat those assumptions. A hiring tool trained on such data, for instance, may unknowingly favour male candidates, pushing qualified women out of the race before a human ever sees their application.

This phenomenon, known as AI gender bias, occurs when machines treat people differently based on gender because bias was built into the data they learned from.

WHEN BIAS TURNS HARMFUL