01
Get hands-on, every week.
You do not need a technical degree to build AI literacy. Set aside time each week to try the tools in your own work — drafting, summarizing, planning, analyzing. Familiarity compounds faster than formal study.
A WOMENUP™ FIELD GUIDE
Women in AI:
a practical guide
Artificial intelligence is reshaping how work gets done — which jobs grow, which shrink and who gets to lead. That shift is not gender-neutral. This guide looks honestly at where women stand in the AI economy today, and at what you can do about it this quarter, not someday.
Where things stand
The World Economic Forum’s March 2025 white paper, Gender Parity in the Intelligent Age (PDF), reports that women’s representation in the STEM workforce reached 28.2% in 2024. Its leadership analysis reports that women held 12.2% of STEM C-suite roles in 2024. These findings draw on LinkedIn data, rather than a census of every worker worldwide; see “The starting point for talent” and “Drop to the top” in the report.
The same WEF and LinkedIn research finds that women in the United States membership data are more represented in occupations exposed to disruption by generative AI, while men are more represented in occupations with potential for augmentation. These are skill-based exposure categories, not counts of jobs already lost: augmentation combines AI-replicable skills with complementary human skills; disruption involves a high share of AI-replicable skills and fewer complementary skills. See Table 1 and Figure 4.
The research points to both a risk and an opening. Building AI literacy can help women navigate changing work and contribute to decisions about how these tools are used.
Five moves that change the math
02
Use AI where you already are.
The fastest gains come from applying AI to the job you have today. Automate one repetitive task, improve one workflow, and measure the difference. Small, visible wins build credibility for bigger ones.
03
Make your results visible.
When AI helps you deliver, say so. Track the hours saved, the quality improved, the revenue touched. Women are asked to prove competence more often than men are — documented results answer that in advance.
04
Build your circle deliberately.
Mentors, peers and sponsors shape whose opportunities reach you. Seek out rooms where women share what is working, trade honest advice and open doors for each other. Progress is rarely a solo project.
05
Step toward the decision rooms.
The gap widens at the top, not the entrance. Volunteer for the project, ask for the stretch role, put your name forward. Every AI-literate woman in a decision room changes who belongs there next.
Women Belong at the Table
Who participates helps shape who benefits. Women belong in the conversations that decide how AI is adopted, whose needs it serves and what success looks like. Practical experience matters — and so does asking whose perspectives are missing.
Put the five moves to work: bring one measured workflow improvement to your next team meeting, find a peer or sponsor who will champion your contribution, and volunteer to help evaluate an AI tool. You do not need every answer to contribute your judgment.
AI can be your equalizer
Your experience is the asset. Your judgment is the advantage. AI can amplify both — helping you explore ideas, prepare for a negotiation or move a business plan forward. It is not a guarantee of equal opportunity, but it can expand what you accomplish with the time and resources you have.
Start with one task you already know well. Try AI, check its output against your expertise, protect confidential information and record what improves. Then share the result with your circle. That connects weekly practice to visible progress — and gives you a concrete example to take into the next decision room.
Why community changes the odds
Most career advice stops at skills. The women who move fastest pair new skills with new rooms — people who share what is working, normalize the learning curve and mention your name where it counts.
That is why WomenUp™ exists. Our tagline is our plan: AI. Ambition + Impact.™ Our first chapter, ASCEND, is a pre-launch holiday social coming in Q4 2026 — an evening to connect with women who are ready to grow, learn what AI makes possible for your next chapter and celebrate how far you have come.
YOU BELONG IN THE ROOM
Connect. Learn. Celebrate. ASCEND.
Join the priority waitlist and be first to hear when the date and venue are announced.
Join the priority waitlistSources
World Economic Forum with LinkedIn — Gender Parity in the Intelligent Age, March 2025 (original report, PDF)
STEM workforce and leadership: “The starting point for talent” and “Drop to the top.” AI exposure definitions and US gender composition: Table 1 and Figure 4.
Report publication page and download