Women may face higher AI job loss risk, history of switch operators and PCs suggests

Historical parallels are drawn to the automated telephone switch introduced by AT&T in the 1940s‑50s, which eliminated an estimated 75,000 operator jobs—about 95% of whom were women. Economists James Feigenbaum (Boston University) and Daniel P. Gross (Duke) documented the shock, noting many displaced workers took lower‑pay jobs or left the labor force. Later, the personal computer era displaced millions of female secretaries; the 1980 census listed 4.7 million such workers, 98% women. Yet women adapted, moving into service, retail, and managerial roles, helping the female labor‑force participation rise from 34% to 52% between 1950 and 1980.

A 2022 study by Marcus Dillender and Eliza Forsythe found software automation cut sector employment by 1% but raised college‑graduate wages by 3%, suggesting AI could reshape but not wholly erase women’s work.