BPW Canada Priority Issue
Artificial Intelligence & Gender Equity
Ensuring women help shape Canada’s AI future
Artificial intelligence is transforming how Canadians work, learn, access services, build businesses, and participate in the economy.
AI offers significant opportunities, but its benefits and risks will not necessarily be experienced equally. Women are disproportionately represented in some occupations vulnerable to AI-driven disruption, while AI systems used in employment and decision-making can reproduce existing inequalities if gender equity is not deliberately considered.
For BPW Canada, artificial intelligence is not simply a technology issue. It is an economic security, employment, leadership, and gender-equity issue.
Our Focus
Measure. Protect. Prepare. Include.
BPW Canada believes women must be able to participate fully in — and benefit equally from — Canada’s AI transformation.
Measure
Measure the impact of artificial intelligence on women’s employment and economic security using gender-disaggregated and intersectional data.
Protect
Protect women from algorithmic discrimination and ensure appropriate transparency, accountability, human oversight, and safeguards when AI affects employment and opportunity.
Prepare
Ensure women have meaningful access to AI education, retraining, upskilling, and digital literacy so they can participate in the jobs and opportunities of the future.
Include
Ensure women are represented in the development, governance, research, leadership, and oversight of artificial intelligence.
Why This Matters
Why Artificial Intelligence Is a Women’s Issue
Employment & Economic Security
Artificial intelligence is changing occupations and workplace tasks across the economy. Women are highly represented in administrative, clerical, customer-service, and other occupations that may experience significant AI-driven change.
Without deliberate planning, workforce transitions may deepen existing economic inequalities.
Bias & Discrimination
AI systems learn from data. When historical data reflect existing inequalities, automated systems can reproduce or amplify those patterns.
This matters when AI is used in recruitment, hiring, promotion, performance management, job matching, and other decisions affecting women’s economic opportunity.
Skills & Opportunity
Women should not only be supported when occupations change. They should have equitable access to the new careers, businesses, technologies, leadership positions, and economic opportunities created by AI.
Women at the Decision-Making Table
Decisions about how artificial intelligence is designed, governed, regulated, and used will shape Canadian society for decades.
Women must be represented in making those decisions — not simply adapting to decisions made without them.
Member-Led Advocacy
BPW Canada Took Action
2025 Emergency Resolution: Addressing the Gendered Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Women’s Employment
In 2025, BPW Canada adopted an emergency resolution calling for federal action to ensure that gender equity is incorporated into Canada’s response to artificial intelligence and workforce transformation.
BPW Canada urged the Government of Canada and relevant ministries to:
- Embed Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) into federal policies, funding programs, and procurement processes related to AI and workforce transformation.
- Create a National Gender Equity in AI Task Force to monitor the economic and social impacts of AI on women and develop measures to respond.
- Invest in retraining, upskilling, and digital literacy for women transitioning from occupations at higher risk of AI-related disruption.
- Strengthen accountability and oversight for AI systems used in employment, including equity audits, gender-disaggregated data reporting, and independent oversight.
Canada’s Changing AI Landscape
Federal Developments Since BPW Canada’s Resolution
Canada’s artificial intelligence policy landscape continues to evolve. BPW Canada welcomes initiatives that promote responsible AI, skills development, transparency, and opportunities for Canadians.
AI Strategy for the Federal Public Service
The Government of Canada introduced its first Artificial Intelligence Strategy for the federal public service, establishing priorities for the responsible adoption and use of AI across federal institutions.
Learn more from the Government of Canada →Canada Launches AI for All
The Government of Canada launched its National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, AI for All. The strategy addresses responsible AI, opportunities for Canadians, workforce skills, adoption, Canadian AI capacity, and international collaboration.
Its focus on empowering Canadians includes expanding access to AI education and training and preparing workers for high-quality jobs.
Explore Canada’s AI for All Strategy →Continued Federal Leadership on GBA+
Women and Gender Equality Canada has identified continued federal leadership on Gender-Based Analysis Plus as a priority, including strengthening its integration into federal policies, programs, and legislation.
Read the WAGE 2026–27 Departmental Plan →Canada Consults on AI Transparency
The federal government launched a public consultation on AI transparency, including how people can know when they are interacting with AI and how AI-generated content should be identified.
The consultation is open until September 23, 2026.
Participate in the federal consultation →Our Advocacy Continues
What BPW Canada Is Watching
Canada has taken important steps toward responsible AI, workforce development, transparency, and skills training. BPW Canada’s advocacy continues to focus on an essential question:
Are women benefiting equally from Canada’s AI transformation?
BPW Canada will continue to encourage attention to:
- the meaningful application of Gender-Based Analysis Plus to AI policies, programs, investments, and procurement;
- the collection and publication of gender-disaggregated and intersectional data on AI-related workforce impacts;
- equitable access for women to AI education, retraining, upskilling, and digital literacy;
- appropriate transparency, bias assessment, accountability, and human oversight when AI systems affect employment;
- meaningful representation of women in AI research, development, governance, entrepreneurship, and leadership.
Be Part of the Conversation
What You Can Do
Learn
Learn how artificial intelligence is changing workplaces, careers, businesses, and economic opportunities for women.
Ask
When AI is introduced in your workplace, ask how bias, privacy, transparency, accountability, and human oversight are being addressed.
Participate
Encourage women and girls to pursue opportunities in AI, digital skills, STEM, entrepreneurship, governance, and leadership.
Advocate
Support policies that ensure technological innovation advances — rather than undermines — gender equality and women’s economic security.
Learn More
Artificial Intelligence Resources
Canada’s National AI Strategy
Explore the Government of Canada’s AI for All strategy.
Visit the Government of Canada →Responsible AI in Government
Learn about federal policies, guidance, and tools for the responsible use of artificial intelligence.
Explore Responsible AI Resources →Gender-Based Analysis Plus
Learn about the Government of Canada’s intersectional approach to understanding how policies and programs may affect different groups.
Learn About GBA+ →Women Shaping the Future
Innovation and Equality Must Advance Together
Artificial intelligence will continue to transform Canada’s economy and workplaces. BPW Canada believes women must have an equal opportunity to benefit from that transformation and an equal voice in shaping how it unfolds.
Women should not simply adapt to an AI future. Women must help create it.