The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) has developed this submission in response to the call from B-Tech for inputs on gender, tech, and the role of business. To date, we have logged over 1,038 datapoints in our database related to technology, gender, discrimination, harassment and/or violence. Women and gender non-conforming persons continue to feel a disproportionate impact of poorly designed, developed and deployed technologies, as evidenced by the fact that the latest technological tools, including generative AI, are released with flaws and biases that amplify sexism and gender stereotypes, facilitate the social control of women, disempower women patients, discriminate against female job applicants, facilitate the targeting of women human rights defenders, and disadvantage women in their access to welfare benefits, amongst other harms.

While emerging technologies unquestionably hold enormous promise – and investors and companies enthusiastically promote their existing and future benefits – the needs of, and risks to, women and gender non-conforming persons cannot be an afterthought. To the contrary, technology will only deliver on its full potential for society if it demonstrates cognisance and care for the whole of the global population, and particularly for vulnerable groups.

The submission argues for the need to adopt a gendered approach to tech, outlines the salient human rights risks disproportionately impacting women and gender non-conforming persons, and outlines a non-exhaustive list of expectations for tech companies on how to address those risks.

Key points from the article include:

1. The need for inclusive design: Poorly designed and deployed technologies disproportionately affect women and gender non-conforming individuals, amplifying sexism and gender stereotypes and disadvantaging women in various ways, such as access to welfare benefits.
2. A continued lack of diversity in tech: Workforce diversity remains a challenge for the tech sector, with women representing only 19% to 43% of the global workforce of the top 5 big tech companies. The lack of diversity of tech investors is also a concern.
3. Concerns about company responses: The responses that the BHRRC has received from tech companies on gender-related allegations often lack specificity on how concerns are being addressed and steps being taken to mitigate future harms.
4. Expectations of tech companies: Tech companies should be actively addressing gender-related concerns internally, improving diversity and inclusion, conducting gender-sensitive research and development, carrying out gender-sensitive human rights due diligence, collaborating more meaningfully with feminist and LGBTQIA+ groups, and prioritizing transparency.
5. Raising the bar on remediation: The tech sector has not fully remediated harms experienced by women and gender non-conforming individuals, and the sector needs to make substantial efforts to rectify these issues and make gender sensitivity an industry standard.