In struggling areas, access to AI tools like ChatGPT is actually making the business gap between men and women wider.
March 26, 2026
Original Paper
GenAI for All? Unequal Impacts on Women in STEM Entrepreneurship
SSRN · 6339938
The Takeaway
While we assume frontier technologies democratize opportunities and level the playing field, this data shows the benefits are unevenly realized. In areas with fewer resources, men are significantly more likely to use AI to enter STEM entrepreneurship than women, creating a 'digital outcome divide.'
From the abstract
The rapid diffusion of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has intensified debate over whether new digital technologies democratize economic participation or instead exacerbate inequality. We study this question in the context of STEM entrepreneurship, where both gender disparities and the relevance of GenAI are especially pronounced. Leveraging the public release of ChatGPT as a quasi-exogenous expansion in access to GenAI capabilities, we examine how GenAI reshapes gender inequality at