Women’s Network news round-up: From gender bias in AI to Australia’s new equality strategy
It’s been a busy month for women-focused and gender equality news. Here we pull together a selection of articles from the last few weeks, including an interview on gender bias in AI and how to tackle it; the Scottish Parliament’s guide to improving equal participation and inclusion of women in parliaments around the world; anger over Indonesia’s new polygamy rules for male civil servants; the UK’s failure to reduce violence against women; and more.
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Gender bias in AI and how to tackle it
In a UN Women article, Zinnya del Villar, director of technology, data & innovation at the Data-Pop Alliance and a leading expert in responsible AI, explained how artificial intelligence reinforces gender bias and perpetuates discrimination against women and girls – and what can be done about it.
Del Villar described how AI trained on biased data can limit opportunities and diversity, particularly in areas such as decision-making, healthcare, hiring, loan approvals and legal judgements.
For example, in healthcare, AI may focus more on male symptoms, leading to misdiagnoses or inadequate treatment for women; voice assistants defaulting to female voices reinforce stereotypes that women are better suited to service roles; and language models like ChatGPT often associate jobs like ‘nurse’ with women and ‘scientist’ with men.
To tackle such biases, Del Villar advocates:
- Training AI using data that has been actively selected to reflect different social backgrounds, cultures and roles and had historical biases removed.
- Ensuring AI development and research teams are diverse and inclusive, bringing different perspectives into the process and reducing risk of ‘blind spots’.
- Improving the transparency of AI algorithms.
- Adopting strong ethical frameworks for AI systems; and integrating gender-responsive policies in developing AI systems.
In other UN Women news… the organisation held its first executive board meeting of the year last week. In her speech to the board, Sima Bahous, UN under-secretary-general and UN Women executive director reiterated the organisation’s commitment to its work programmes but noted that more than half of its top twenty core donors had shifted their development policy “in ways that weaken support for the UN and for our agency”.
She said “some of these adverse impacts are already felt; others we anticipate shortly” – likely referencing the Trump administration’s freezing of UN aid and climate funds.
More on that here and here
Australian Public Service making ‘significant’ progress on gender equality
The APS has made “significant gains” towards gender equality, according to a government report.
Latest figures show that as of 31 December 2023, women made up 60% of the APS workforce. Women achieved – and in most cases surpassed – parity with men at all levels from entry-level roles (APS 1) to Senior Executive Service (SES) Band 2, which comprises public servants overseeing major divisions and policy areas.
The APS also narrowed its gender pay gap to 4.5% in December 2023, from 6% in December 2021. However, the report notes that there is still more to do.
In other Australia news, it was announced earlier this month that the Australian government had introduced a new strategy that will make gender equality a central pillar of its foreign policy, trade and aid programmes.
The country’s new International Gender Equality Strategy focuses on five key priorities: working to end sexual- and gender-based violence, and advance and protect women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights; pursuing gender responsive peace and security efforts; delivering gender equitable climate action and humanitarian assistance; promoting women’s economic equality and inclusive trade; and supporting locally-led approaches to women’s leadership.
Foreign minister Penny Wong said that gender equality is a “stronger predictor of peace than a nation’s wealth or political system” and that while some would “try to delegitimise this strategy as being of ‘special interest’… gender equality is a matter of national interest”.
Scottish Parliament publishes ‘gender sensitive’ guide for use globally
On 5 February, the Scottish Parliament published new guidance that aims to improve equal participation and inclusion of women in parliaments around the world.
Gender Sensitising Parliaments: A Practical Guide – which was led by academics from the University of Edinburgh – highlights the “importance of a broad understanding of gender sensitivity, enthusiastic leadership, collaborative ethos, robust research, and institutional support” in achieving better inclusion of women in parliaments.
It outlines core principles and practices of a gender sensitive parliament and sets out six steps to evaluating progress.
Developing the guide was one of the recommendations of an audit of the Scottish Parliament, which found that while it had made good progress, the equal representation of women was not yet embedded.
“Research shows that the strength of democracy is improved by having greater diversity in our parliaments. When a parliament better reflects the communities it serves, better decisions are made,” member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), Alison Johnstone, said.
UK Home Office fails to reduce violence against women, watchdog finds
The work of the UK Home Office to address gender-based violence has not improved outcomes for victims or the safety of women and girls, according to the country’s public spending watchdog.
The National Audit Office (NAO) described violence against women and girls as a “significant and growing problem”. According to the NAO, at least 1 in 12 women are victims of gender-based violence every year and 20% of all police recorded crime related to violence against women and girls in 2022-23.
The NAO said the Home Office did not lead “an effective cross-government response” to strategies adopted by the previous Conservative government, and noted that a ministerial oversight group “only met four times in three years”.
The current Labour government has pledged to halve violence against women in a decade.
Indonesia tightens polygamy rules for civil servants
The regional government of Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, has introduced strict provisions male civil servants must adhere to if they are to practice polygamy, drawing the ire of women’s rights groups.
The new regulations include providing medical proof that the first wife is unable to perform her marital responsibilities due to disability or illness, evidence of infertility after ten years of marriage, written consent from the first wife, and a court’s approval.
Human rights groups and gender equality advocates are calling for polygamy to be abolished in the country entirely, arguing that the new regulations perpetuate patriarchal norms, enable domestic violence, and fail to protect women and children in polygamous marriages.
Amnesty International Indonesia’s executive director, Usman Hamid, said the regulation was a violation of international human rights treaties that Indonesia has ratified, and called for the Jakarta administration to focus on policies that promote gender equality, such as improving women’s access to divorce and child custody rights.
Women into Leadership seminars
Global Government Forum’s Women into Leadership seminars are designed for women in the civil service who want to understand what works in terms of overcoming obstacles and achieving promotion, why it works, and how you can make it work for you.
The intention is to help you develop a far deeper understanding of the external and internal factors that can hold women back, and most importantly, what actions you can realistically take to overcome these obstacles.
Women into Leadership I – next taking place on Thursday 27 March
Women into Leadership II – next taking place on Thursday 3 April
About Mia Hunt
Mia has been editor of globalgovernmentforum.com since 2019. She has 15 years’ experience as a journalist and editor and specialises in writing for civil and public servants worldwide, including covering sustainability policy and related issues. She has led the Global Government Women’s Network since it launched in 2023. Previously, she covered commercial property having been market reports and supplements editor at Property Week and deputy editor at Retail Destination. She graduated from Kingston University London with a first-class honours degree in journalism and was part of the team that produced The River newspaper, which won Publication of the Year at the Guardian Student Media Awards in 2010.
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