Women are strong at the things AI can't do
Leadership, Gender and AI
My doctoral dissertation research focused broadly on leadership and gender — and created (or uncovered) a passion and interest that I didn't know I had. Since then, I've written two books on the topic, and I have a publisher for my third book (likely to launch in 2027). This will complete the leadership and gender trilogy!
My first book, The Power of Perception: Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, and the Gender Divide, focuses on career-minded women. It outlines the barriers that women encounter in the workplace and explains why we don't see more women leading our global organizations today. It also provides a unique look at leadership and emotional intelligence from a gendered perspective.
My second book, co-written with Michael O'Brien, focuses on helping and supporting men be better allies to women and people of color. It's titled, The 5 Levels of Male Allyship: A Guide to Building Better Teams Through Real Inclusion. It officially launched on February 3rd of this year and quickly became an Amazon bestseller!
Given the rapid transformation of AI into our work and lives, I find myself thinking more and more about gender and AI.
Women are using AI at lower rates than men, and they hold more jobs that are likely to be automated by AI. But women do have a distinct advantage in an AI-powered job market: they are especially strong at the things AI can’t do.
Using AI can make life much easier. It can rewrite drafts, perform analysis, summarize ideas into a tidy framework, or give you a new approach — but it can’t do the deeply human things that drive culture, engagement, and performance at work.
These include communication, empathy, creativity, wisdom, judgement, intuition, and ethical decision making. But it also involves the ability to create mutually satisfying relationships and transformational leadership. These are capacities AI does not do very well and may never master.
As businesses increasingly rely on AI, the technology’s deficiencies in these areas could create opportunities that would position women leaders to thrive.
Women's leadership is more important than ever
In my first book, I examined emotional intelligence (EQ) competencies and pointed out strengths of both men and women. When it comes to AI, women's skills are particularly suited to balance out AI shortcomings.
Here’s why:
Women are often strong communicators. We tend to provide plenty of detail and use concrete language in our communications, and we take steps to help people understand how to meet objectives. This offers a distinct advantage when it comes to building consensus and driving results (and it could also make women particularly good at using AI).
Women score highly on empathy. Several studies show that empathy may be the most important leadership skill — it can help leaders to understand and mitigate team struggles and roadblocks and fuel a positive culture that leads to superior results. In EQ assessments worldwide, this is the one EQ skill where women score 3 times higher than men.
Women are strong transformational leaders. Dozens of studies show that men and women are equally effective leaders, but we lead in different ways. Transformational leadership is linked to women's style. This type of leadership is built on collaboration, communication, and collective problem solving. Women often combine empathy with other key skills to become transformational leaders.
Women score highly in interpersonal relationships. This refers to the skill of developing and maintaining mutually satisfying relationships that are characterized by trust and compassion. This is another area where women tend to outperform men in EQ assessments, and building quality relationships is not a priority for AI.
Women tend to lead with ethics in mind. We’re socialized to act communally and are more likely to hold values and set goals that promote welfare of others, and act ethically across different contexts, including in the workplace. Women also do not hesitate to call out bad behavior when they see it, even among other women. If AI tools do not prioritize ethics, people who lead with a moral compass are more important than ever.
There is no doubt that AI is creating a revolution and it will become a core workplace skill. But AI will never replace other crucial workplace skills — those rooted most deeply in our humanity where women often excel.
Next Steps
I would encourage all women to use AI more, even in small ways, to get familiar with the tools and everything that the technology offers. If more women used AI, it would not only help decrease biases in the AI algorithms and coding, but could improve our workplaces, and help close the gap on the things AI can't do.
I'm a licensed practitioner in emotional intelligence, specifically the EQ-i 2.0 and EQ 360 models through Multi-Health Systems.
If you're booking keynote speakers for your corporation or organization, or you'd like to talk more about a corporate training program, please feel free to get in touch!
You could also pick up a copy of either of my books to learn more about the dynamics of leadership and gender.
Until next time,
Shawn
