GoKawiilReese Witherspoon recently took to Instagram to lecture her millions of followers about how women aren’t using artificial intelligence enough. She concluded the video with a call to action to learn AI with her.
Witherspoon received thousands of comments criticizing her for being tone-deaf regarding issues including the environmental impact, data center backlash and biases inherent to AI.
Witherspoon is right — there is a growing gender divide with AI — but the response she received might be more indicative of why. If Legally Blonde’s Elle Woods can’t get through to the millennial woman, who can?
No female Altman
The research tells us that women are more risk-averse than men. Women consistently perceive AI as riskier, especially when its economic and societal effects are uncertain.
Women are also less represented in tech. As of 2025, women make up roughly a quarter of the global tech workforce, with less than a fifth in senior leadership roles. Men apply for a job when they meet only 60% of the qualifications, whereas women tend to apply only when they meet 100% of them, according to research.
The need for gender diversity in technology is one side of the conversation. How AI usage is playing out across the societal spectrum is another. A Harvard Business School meta-analysis from April, of 18 separate studies covering over 143,000 individuals and 25 countries, found that women had 22% lower odds of using generative AI than men.
Furthermore, a Deloitte study from November 2024 found that AI adoption declines with age, and the gender gap is most pronounced in the 45-and-up group.
Recruitment company Randstad released a report a year ago that found 71% of AI-skilled workers are men and 29% are women — a 42% point gender gap. Men are more likely to be offered AI training by employers (35% vs. 27%), and women are severely underrepresented in generative AI skills (69% vs. 31%).
Randstad
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