Why join an AI network for only women?

Ley Muller

Oct 3

2 min read

Or: why do we need networks for under-represented groups in AI?

This past week, I moderated a half-day session during Trondheim Tech Festival, as Women in AI Norway's Research and Education lead. I got the gig after a recommendation by Women in AI Norway's country ambassador Rebecca Hiles.

My speaking was limited to a grand total of 12 minutes over four hours, but it's the prep-work that is intense: multiple meetings with each of the nine speakers and sometimes with their teams, listening for what not to ask them and which topics would energize them.

I heard some concern with the gender perspective from one team, so I was fully prepared to justify why the line-up was all women. I began with statistics.

speaker notes on a yellow background with Women in AI branding. the text is handwritten and hard to read

𝐈𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐬:

20% of leaders are women
22% of technical roles are women

𝐖𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧-𝐝𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬:

29% are "exposed" to generative AI - this is a euphemism for labor displacement
versus 16% of men-dominated industries.

𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐢𝐧 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥:

56% of women have experienced harassment or discrimination that affects their career progression.
To my knowledge, the NOKIOS conference is the only tech conference in Norway that has an explicit anti-sexual harassment policy, and procedures for what to do and how to be safe. Most of the time, women know not to go to the bar after the conference dinner; we quietly warn each other which companies' tables have certain reputations; we make sure we don't drink as much as our male colleagues.

And the lack of representation, and the lack of influence, and the lack of leadership, continues.

Women are not the only under-represented group! Which is why Queer in AI exists for queer researchers, and why Timnit Gebru started Black in AI. It's why the global think tank The Aula Fellowship makes material to facilitate community engagement of AI policies.

When I first met the Women in AI Norway team in Trondeim, I had been working in the tech sector. Suddenly: here was this group of kind, open, and motivated women, who had built up a Norwegian chapter with zero funding. More than half had PhDs with machine learing or computer science. They worked in oil and gas, academia, and healthcare. I put my guard down, because this was the type of environment I wanted to be in.

If you are on the fence about joining a network, I encourage it!