Episode 173 Is Guilt Driving the AI Gender Gap? cover art

Episode 173 Is Guilt Driving the AI Gender Gap?

Episode 173 Is Guilt Driving the AI Gender Gap?

Listen for free

View show details

About this listen

 Medium Lady Talks — Episode 173 Is Guilt Driving the AI Gender Gap? Hi, I'm Erin and this is Medium Lady Talks — the podcast for millennial women who want to live more intentionally, read more books, and stop burning out in the middle of a life they actually love. What this episode is about If you've ever used an AI tool (or thought about using one) and felt weird about it afterward — not quite wrong, but not quite right — this episode is for you. We spend the whole episode trying to figure out what that feeling actually is. Because I don't think it's guilt. I think it's something more useful. And the difference matters. We look at what the research says about women and AI adoption, why the gender gap exists (the answer is not what most people assume), and then walk carefully through the emotions that get bundled together under "guilt" — and why naming them separately changes what you do with them. What you'll hear The gender gap in AI use is real and documented across 18 international studies — but it isn't being driven by ethics, technophobia, or lack of access. The biggest driver is self-reported knowledge. Women say they don't know enough, and that uncertainty holds them back. There's also a specific research finding that stopped me: women are significantly more likely than men to describe their own AI use as "cheating." We sit with that one for a while. There are six feelings that tend to get bundled into AI guilt, and they each have a different signal and a different right response: trepidation, cognitive dissonance, identity threat, environmental concern, social anxiety, and actual guilt. Most of them aren't guilt. And the one that might be deserves careful examination — not a spiral. On the environment: the concern is valid at the systemic level, and the accountability belongs with the companies building and scaling these systems — not with individual users. The pattern of loading collective moral responsibility onto individual women while the systems that created the problem go unexamined? We've seen that one before. And the concept I'm now completely obsessed with: fierce ambivalence — from researcher Mara Bolis. The ability to hold two truths at once: I can use these tools to empower myself AND demand better from the people building them. That's not confusion. That might be the most coherent position available right now. Resources mentioned Global Evidence on Gender Gaps and Generative AI — Otis, Delecourt, Cranney & Koning, Harvard Business School Working Paper No. 25-023The AI Gender Gap Paradox — Mara Bolis, Stanford Social Innovation Review. Where "fierce ambivalence" comes from. A five-minute read I highly recommend.We Did the Math on AI's Energy Footprint — MIT Technology Review. Individual queries vs. industry-level impact, clearly explained, this read is a little bit longer!Environmental Impacts of Artificial Intelligence — Wikipedia. Genuinely excellent. A good two-minute orientation to the full picture and lots of links to take you down a rabbit hole. In Episode 174 we'll get into the "Be Your Own Wife" concept — what a values-based relationship with AI actually looks like in practice. DM me on Instagram at @medium.lady your reactions and opinions will always be used in consideration of each following episde. Medium Lady Talks is created, hosted and produced by Erin Vandeven. New episodes drop weekly.
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_c
No reviews yet