Martindale Center- Policy Briefs on the Future of Work

Automation, Gender, and Race 12 12 automation or digitization a top-ten priority” (Madgavkar). By promoting lifelong learning initiatives, whether through government subsidizing programs, giving tax break incentives to employers who promote opportunities for their workers to gainnew trades and skills, or supportingNGOs, women can be given the opportunity to enter fast-growing sectors and learn skills that will benefit new kinds of careers. Increases inflexibilitywillhelpallAmericanworkers torespond as developments in automation and AI alter the labor market; however, women often find themselves in inflexible positions due to the burden of childcare. Distributing unpaid carework, which currently typically falls onwomen, more equally among men andwomenwould helpwith this burden.Women account for 75% of the share of unpaid care work around the world, according to theBell PolicyCenter (Gutierrez). This imbalance often denies women the time to obtain new education and job training opportunities. Meaningful policies that can help distribute care revolve around expanding paternity leave on the federal level, encouraging companies to increase leave time, and incentivizing employers to provide additional benefits. Additionally, stronger leave benefits for parents could be implemented on a national level as can investing in easily accessible and affordable childcare facilities, whichwould allow for parents, especiallymothers, to continueworking, learning, and growing professionally after having children. Because of the dynamic changing circumstances that surround development of automation and AI in the American economy, women, particularly women of color, must have an active voice in policy development and implementation, both inside the government and in the labor market. This should involve both government and business initiatives to provide reliable information to women and women of color about how automation will change the labor market and how the gender wage gap may worsen in the near future. Additionally, introducing women to STEM fields starting as early as elementary school, and continuing through government and private programs like STEMsummer camps, could encourage interest insciencesandtechnology. Thegovernment alsoshould incentivize underrepresentedminorities, especiallywomen, to pursue careers inSTEMby subsidizing education and technical training or supplying direct payments while they transition to newly developed labor sectors. Finally, government and business leaders must take active steps to address the lack of diversity in the STEMworkforce by promoting public diversity campaigns and inclusive programs to encourage women, especially women of color, to pursue education in STEM. Conclusion Ultimately, the rise in automationmay hurt women, especially women of color, due to barriers to education in emerging fields and to industries and upskilling opportunities, which stem from broader systematic issues. COVID-19 has served as an accelerant of sorts, revealing more clearly to the nation the drastic disparities and socioeconomic barriers that are prevalent between genders and races in theUnited States. The Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality estimates that to end gender segregation across occupations would take about a quarter of women in occupations dominated by women switchingwithmen inmale-dominated ones (Weeden). Clearly then, there is much to be done, especially as women have much lower representation in sectors where job growth from automation is expected (Gutierrez). The US government must start implementing policies that promote gender equity in the workplace and throughout the country through easier access to education, upskilling, and STEM programs in addition to better care policies and access to more accurate information. To both promote and implement policies that will better shape their future educational, childcare, and work environments, women, andwomenof color inparticular, shouldhave an active voice and play central roles. Such an approach will be vital in achieving UN Sustainable Development Goals like gender equality, quality education, and decent work and economic growth, which all correlate to creatingmore equitable society, communities, and workplaces. References 1. Brynjolfsson, E., & McAfee, A. “The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Bril- liant Technologies. W. W. Norton & Company, 2014. 2. Catalyst. Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM): Quick Take. 4 August 2020. 3. Census Bureau. American Community Survey. The United States Census Bureau. 25 December 2018. 4. Chessell, Darren. “The Jobless Economy in a Post-Work Society: How Automation Will Transform the Labor Market.” Psychosociological Issues in Human Resource Management , Vol. 6, no. 2, 2018, pp. 74+. 5. Crenshaw, KimberléWilliams, & Bonis. Oristelle. “Map- ping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, andViolence againstWomen of Color,” Cahiers duGenre , Vol. 39, no. 2, 2005, pp. 51–82.