Automation technologies and the risk of substitution of women: Can gender equality in the institutional context reduce the risk?

This study investigates how the institutional context in terms of gender equality (in general and in the education and work components) affects the risk of substitution faced by European women, i.e., their risk of being replaced by automation technologies. To this aim, the risk of substitution is estimated by applying the task-based approach and by considering which skills cannot be automated (i.e., perception and manipulation, creative intelligence, and social intelligence). Then, the influence of the institutional context on the risk of substitution is evaluated. European women face a slightly lower risk of substitution than men (0.5755 versus 0.5816). In institutional contexts where gender equality is high, women and men face a higher risk of substitution, but the gender gap in this risk increases in favour of women, who face a significantly lower risk than men. Since automation reduces the general gap women face in society and gender equality in the institutional context contributes to reducing this gap, European policies should promote gender equality in the institutional context to foster a narrower gender gap following the adoption of automation technologies.