On 27 February, WeAreTheCity welcomed Laura Bates, Author, Activist, and founder of Everyday Sexism to speak to their clients and supporters about sexism in society, and the impact of AI on women.
Laura’s new book, The New Age of Sexism, How the AI Revolution is Reinventing Misogyny is set for release on 15 May – Pre order here.
Below is a summary of our town hall where Laura explained why we still have mountains to climb when it comes to ending sexism and misogyny online. A huge thank you to Laura for sharing her insights with us and our clients.
Why Gender Equality Work is Far From Over
In the UK and beyond, some question whether gender inequality remains a pressing issue. They argue that feminism is outdated, that sexism is a relic of the past, and that initiatives like International Women’s Day are unnecessary. Yet, for those engaged in gender equity work, the evidence tells a very different story.
The Reality Behind the Perception
In reality, women remain significantly under-represented in leadership and decision-making roles. Everywhere from parliament to board rooms, when people are making decisions that impact our lives on a daily basis, they don’t tend to be completely representative of the communities they serve. And the disparity continues across a wide range of fields, from science to art, architecture to engineering.
The Ongoing Impact of Gender Stereotypes
These imbalances stem from deeply ingrained gender norms. From childhood, boys are socialised to believe they must be strong and unemotional, contributing to the stark reality that suicide remains the leading cause of death for men under 50. Meanwhile, women face stereotypes that paint them as overly emotional, impacting their career prospects and credibility in professional settings.
These stereotypes translate into real-world workplace challenges. Women’s ideas in meetings are often ignored until repeated by male colleagues. They are frequently assumed to be less senior, passed over for leadership roles, or expected to take on administrative tasks. Gender bias manifests in hiring, promotions, and workplace culture, contributing to persistent gender pay gaps and barriers to advancement.
The Reality of Violence Against Women
In reality, women remain significantly under-represented in leadership and decision-making roles. Everywhere from parliament to board rooms, when people are making decisions that impact our lives on a daily basis, they don’t tend to be completely representative of the communities they serve. And the disparity continues across a wide range of fields, from science to art, architecture to engineering. AI Adoption and Gender Disparities
AI, structural bias and gendered harm
The rise of AI presents a new frontier in gender inequality. With great opportunity comes great risk, and we are already seeing the impact play out, from women being slower adopters of emerging technology, to the ways in which AI can unintentionally re-embed existing inequalities and forms of prejudice within the building blocks of new systems. Across a broad range of applications, from financial assessments to healthcare and recruitment, we are already seeing the consequences of these biases for women and marginalised groups. There are also ways in which emerging technologies are being harnessed by bad actors for deliberate gendered harms, from the use of deepfake technology to create fake pornographic images of women to the use of smart tech by stalkers and domestic abusers.
The Role We Must Play
As AI reshapes society, we have a critical window to intervene and ensure these technologies do not entrench existing inequalities. Governments, policymakers, and tech leaders must prioritise ethical AI development by:
- Increasing Female Representation in AI development, academia, and leadership to ensure diverse perspectives shape the future of technology.
- Implementing Stronger Regulations to prevent AI from reinforcing bias in recruitment, policing, and finance.
- Developing AI Ethics Frameworks that mandate fairness, accountability, and transparency in algorithmic decision-making.
- Combating Online Abuse by enforcing stricter legal consequences for those who use AI for harassment, coercion, and non-consensual exploitation.
- Raising Public Awareness about the real risks AI poses to gender equality and ensuring that conversations about AI safety include the voices of those most affected.
A Call to Action
Gender inequality is not a women’s issue; it affects everyone. The same stereotypes that hold women back also harm men, particularly in mental health. Tackling these issues requires systemic change, not just individual action. Rather than focusing on how women should respond to discrimination, the conversation must shift toward dismantling the structures that allow inequality to persist.
As long as these disparities exist, the fight for gender equality must continue. Recognising and addressing inequality is not about dividing men and women—it is about building a fairer, more inclusive society for all. The work is far from over, and it is up to all of us to ensure meaningful progress.
About Laura Bates
Laura Bates is a best-selling author, keynote speaker and founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, an ever-increasing collection of over 250,000 testimonies of gender inequality. Her books include Everyday Sexism (shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year), The Sunday Times bestseller Girl Up, and Fix the System, Not the Women. Laura writes regularly for the New York Times, Guardian and others, and is a frequent media commentator and consultant for TV productions tackling issues around gender inequality.
Laura works closely with politicians, businesses, schools, and organisations, from the Council of Europe to the United Nations, to increase equality and diversity. Her work also covers the ever-increasing business case for addressing subjects of gender inequality and misogyny in the workplace (in the knowledge that tackling such issues greatly improves performance and productivity.)
Laura’s campaigning alongside other activists has received huge praise and success: including persuading Facebook to change its policies on rape and domestic abuse content, putting sexual consent and healthy relationships on the school curriculum and improving the way in which the British Transport Police respond to incidents of sexual violence. She has been described as one of the leading voices of fourth wave feminism.
In recognition of Laura’s work, she was awarded a British Empire Medal in the 2015 Queen’s Birthday Honours List, participated in President Obama’s White House Summit on the United State of Women and has been named Woman of the Year by Cosmopolitan, Red Magazine and The Sunday Times Magazine. She has also been named on the Woman’s Hour Power List and was one of the BBC’s inaugural 100 Women. Laura is an Honorary Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
As a keynote speaker, Laura Bates has spoken across the globe to some of the world’s biggest companies, including Google, the World Trade Organisation, Viacom, Paramount Pictures, EY and UBS. Her keynote topics include, but are not limited to:
You can find out more about Laura Bates and her work here.
