Women are Majority of Caregivers AND Majority of Those Affected by Disability — So Where is the AI Innovation?
The intersection of caregiving, higher rates of disability, and under representation in technology leadership is creating a profound gender disparity perfect storm 🚺 ⛈️ that needs to be addressed.
As women continue to bear disproportionate responsibility for the care of others, while simultaneously facing higher rates of disability themselves, the low rates of female leadership in the tech industry means that the very innovation that could relieve this caregiving/disability imbalance will go unrealized.
As women age, they contribute an astonishing 4.3 hours per day of unpaid care and domestic work to society. And according to UN Women, disability rates for women aged 50+ also are considerably higher than men at 40.1 percent to 23.8 percent.
When looking at those in STEM jobs, or the field of AI more specifically, the percentage of women in the workforce hovers at just 30 percent. Unfortunately, the caregiver/disability problem won’t fully benefit from tech advancement and innovation without more women in those roles.
Finally, as I've written about previously, and to quote a professor of robotics at NYU: "technology is not value free." This means that if we don't consider carefully what we are building and why—versus just innovating for the sake of doing it—we'll find ourselves deepening already-worrisome societal dynamics. And in this case, women's unpaid labor will continue to subsidize our economy while leaving her needs unaddressed, and the ecosystem on the brink of collapse.
Report Table of Contents:
Implications of Innovation Gender Gap
When women's voices are excluded from technology development, the resulting products and services created can fail to address their very specific needs. This is a result of not just a paucity of women in the STEM workforce, but also their lack of leadership positions. In the healthcare sector, women hold just 18 percent of leadership positions at healthcare technology firms. And in terms of invention, women account for only 17 percent of patent holders worldwide.
What Does *Exclusion* Look Like
Excluding the perspective of women and those with a diverse range of abilities, even when building well-intended, purposeful technology, is a missed opportunity. What it looks like today:
🚺 Caregiving apps designed without input from caregivers
Detailed research in 2022 examining 1,008 apps found that although many new apps target caregivers, they failed to address the caregivers' own needs and offered only limited functionality. The study's authors concluded:
"Ideally future apps would be co-designed with family caregivers, and specifically targeted at caregivers who are most at risk of caregiver burnout such as those caring for patients with complex needs patients or end-of-life patients. Through co-design, apps may have a greater opportunity to meet the diverse needs of family caregivers, and as such, help to reduce overall caregiver burden."
🚺 Assistive devices that don't accommodate women's physical differences
Studies have found that women are less likely to use mobility aids despite higher need, for various reasons including design limitations—yet researchers rarely investigate why.
"Our analysis suggests that there is a clear gender gap in access to mobility aids. Though our data didn't ascertain the reason why participants weren't using mobility aids, other research tells us that women are often more likely than men to face obstacles such as cost barriers as a result of well-documented income disparities between genders. Many mobility aids are designed for men rather than women, which we think may be a factor." — Global Disability Innovation Hub, January 2025
🚺 Health monitoring systems which overlook women-specific (and age-related) health indicators
Wearables are now used by one-third of older adults. But these devices and their accompanying software are often calibrated for younger users, making their data less useful for the older adults enthusiastically adopting the technology.
For women specifically, inadequate calibration for female physiology reduces accuracy. On a positive note, this has encouraged some innovation in the space, even though funding still lags behind other sectors.
🚺 Smart home technology that misses an opportunity to assist with caregiver tasks and mobility challenges
Research on how technology effectively supports caregivers reveals significant room for investment and improvement, particularly in smart home technology.
The opportunity is enormous in scope as the "longevity economy" (driven by aging Baby Boomers) is worth $8.3 trillion annually. However, if those in caregiving positions aren't able to provide feedback and leadership on this innovation, its potential success will be limited.
Considering Stanford research finding that caregivers are "exhausted," the focus should shift quickly toward addressing their needs through better-designed technology.
The Accessible Home: Guide to Smart Technology for Independent Living
We often hear about “smart home” technology and think of it as a nice-to-have, or maybe even a ridiculous indulgence, but what we don’t often consider is how it can help our mobility and overall ability. Or what it could mean to those with less independence at the moment, and those that care for them.
Few Women are Leading in AI
Including women in technology development isn't merely about equity—it's about effectiveness. Currently, with women severely underrepresented in the AI industry (at just 30 percent of employees, with leadership roles far fewer), we are falling behind.
When technology fails to address the needs of its primary users, it fails to fulfill its purpose. The participation of women, particularly those with lived experience as caregivers or individuals with disabilities, brings essential insights that lead to more functional, accessible, and impactful solutions.
Women bring unique perspectives such as, practical experience navigating complex care systems; firsthand knowledge of the challenges of disability; understanding of the emotional and physical demands of caregiving; and recognition of the social and economic barriers that accompany these roles.
How to Change the Gender Disparity in AI and STEM
🚀 Increase representation of women in leadership and on development teams
Gender diversity in technology leadership isn't just about fairness—it drives better business outcomes. Companies with at least 30 percent women in leadership positions are 15 percent more profitable, according to Revolent's 2024 report on women in technology. Yet women not only hold fewer than 15 percent of leadership positions at Fortune 500 healthcare companies, they also make up to 80 percent of healthcare buying decisions overall.
Practical implementation of change requires addressing systemic barriers through concrete actions. This can include, establishing objective criteria for evaluation and promotion; requiring diverse candidate slates for all leadership positions; implementing bias training for hiring managers and promotion committees; and creating transparent reporting systems for gender representation at all levels.
🚀 Engage women caregivers and those with disabilities as consultants and co-designers
User-centered design requires bringing end users into the development process, yet research shows this rarely happens.
"For myriad reasons—from lack of ready-made caregiver test groups and user panels to an underlying ageism that distances developers from their target audience—technology-enabled products are too often created in isolation from those who will use them." — Technology and Caregiving: Emerging Interventions and Directions for Research, February 2020
Companies can implement this approach by establishing paid advisory councils; creating formal co-design protocols that integrate user feedback at every stage of development; conducting immersive ethnographic research where developers shadow caregivers; and ensuring post-launch feedback loops with diverse user communities.
The absence of this approach explains why 72% of caregiving apps lack the basic features identified as "essential" by professional and family caregivers. So, when the development process is not inclusive, the business opportunity isn’t realized either.
🚀 Fund women-led startups focused on caregiving and disability solutions
The funding gap for female entrepreneurs in healthcare technology is particular shocking, with only 2.3 percent of venture capital funding going to women-led startups. And this despite evidence that women founders generate higher returns on investment, with women-led healthcare companies delivering 10 percent higher revenues than the industry average.
How can the industry quickly address? It begins with establishing specialized investment funds focused on women-led caregiving and disability tech; creating pitch competitions and accelerator programs; connecting women entrepreneurs with mentor networks; and implementing diversity requirements for investment portfolios of institutional investors.
Models like the Women's Health Tech Initiative and efforts such as FemTech Insider demonstrate how targeted investment can drive innovation in under-served markets while delivering strong financial returns.
🚀 Create educational pathways that encourage girls and young women to pursue careers at the intersection of technology and care
Finally, the pipeline challenge begins early. While computing degrees have seen a 23 percent growth in accepted applications from women since 2019, women remain significantly underrepresented in technical roles. In the UK, only 20 percent of software engineers identify as women or non-binary.
Effective educational pathways are available and clear, though. These can include: developing curriculum that explicitly connects technology to social impact; creating mentorship programs; establishing scholarship programs for women pursuing degrees at the intersection of care and technology; and supporting community-based coding programs that emphasize technology's potential for addressing societal issues that impact women.
Organizations like Girls Who Code and Black Girls Code have demonstrated that targeted educational programs can significantly increase participation when they connect technical skills to meaningful social impact.
On the bright side, the healthcare sector has the highest share of women in STEM positions at 41 percent. So it’s clear that women are drawn to fields where technology serves human needs. So by intentionally connecting technology careers to caregiving challenges, we can attract even more women to the field and develop more effective solutions.
It’s not only possible, it’s imperative, and we can get there.
Have thoughts? Get in touch: