New York, 24 September 2026 – Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly reshaping how people work, communicate, access public services, and exercise their rights. Yet women remain significantly underrepresented among those developing the technologies and making decisions about how they are governed and deployed: men hold nearly eight in 10 artificial intelligence jobs and almost nine in 10 senior leadership positions shaping the technology.
As world leaders gather in New York for the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA81), artificial intelligence is at the forefront of discussions on economic transformation, the future of work, development, warfare, and international peace and security. And still, women and girls, and the implications of these technological shifts on their rights and empowerment, remain largely absent from the debate.
“The artificial intelligence systems we build today will shape how we live and work tomorrow. If women are missing from their design and governance, we risk carrying the inequalities of the present into the future”, said Sima Bahous, Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women.
Women are already experiencing the consequences of AI systems that fail to account for their realities. A global analysis of 133 AI systems found that 44 per cent demonstrated gender bias. Meanwhile, nearly one in four women human rights defenders, activists and journalists surveyed by UN Women reported experiencing AI-assisted online violence.
Launched today, the Hub aims to change both who shapes technology and who it serves.
It will bring together researchers, governments, technology companies, AI experts and women’s rights organizations to generate evidence on how emerging technologies affect women and girls. It will support Member States in developing gender-responsive digital and AI policies that benefit society as a whole, while working with technology companies to embed gender equality principles into the design and governance of technology.
The Hub will help ensure that gender equality is at the heart of AI and digital governance, strengthening the UN system’s capacity to act, while giving women and women’s rights organizations a stronger voice in shaping the policies, rules and technologies that will define the future of AI.
“AI can deepen gender inequality or help overcome it. That is a human choice – and those choices are being made now by engineers, companies, investors and governments”, said Sima Bahous, Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women. At UNGA81, UN Women’s message is clear: equality is not only about representation. It is also about power. AI is already helping to reshape economic, social and political power. Women and girls, their rights, voices, needs and perspectives – must therefore be central to designing it and shaping its future.”
The Digital, Innovation and AI Hub forms part of UN Women’s broader work to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment in the context of rapid technological change. Its work will contribute to international efforts to ensure that digital transformation and AI support inclusive and sustainable development and respect human rights.
