■ Mandatory gender action plans in every national digital policy ■ Gender-disaggregated data standards to eliminate bias in AI training ■ Incentives for female entrepreneurship at every stage of the AI lifecycle — design, development, deployment, and governance This is not a wish list. It is an adopted global framework — and it urgently needs businesswomen’s voices to champion its implementation. Beyond that framework, women entrepreneurs must champion: ■ Mandatory AI bias audits with genderdisaggregated results, required by law ■ Gender-impact assessments before AI systems are deployed in hiring, credit scoring, or business lending ■ Gender parity on AI ethics boards and all regulatory bodies overseeing AI ■ National reskilling programs with gender parity targets — not charity, but economic necessity to close the AI and STEM gaps, and increase GDP and productivity ■ Publicly funded AI-powered accelerators designed specifically for women entrepreneurs — in healthcare, the care economy, education, mental health, and sustainable supply chains ■ And binding national AI gender action plans from governments What organizations have the ability to drive action? Intergovernmental bodies: ■ The OECD — its AI Principles are the first intergovernmental AI standard and explicitly call on 38 member countries to address gender inequalities in AI. Note that 12 G20 countries are Full Members of the OECD, and five are Key Partners ■ Expand UNESCO’s Women4Ethical AI regional chapters and push for binding implementation timelines on the 2021 Recommendation Legislative bodies: ■ The European Union — the EU AI Act (adopted 2024) is the world’s first legally binding AI regulation; demand that its implementation guidance require gender-impact assessments for all high-risk AI systems ■ The U.S. Congress — push for federal algorithmic accountability legislation with mandatory gender-disaggregated bias audits ■ State legislatures — California, New York, Colorado, and Illinois are already leading on algorithmic discrimination protections; other states need organized pressure campaigns The private sector: ■ Corporate AI ethics boards — promote women’s seats and hold companies publicly accountable for gender audit results ■ Venture capital and institutional investors — push ESG mandates to require gender-bias audits before AI companies receive funding or are included in investment portfolios ■ Major technology platforms (Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, OpenAI) — these companies set de facto global standards. Public advocacy and procurement decisions are powerful tools Women’s business organizations and their advocates ■ National women’s entrepreneurship associations — the Women20 of the G20 countries, and Enterprising Women’s own network should make AI governance advocacy a standing policy priority What our women’s entrepreneurial community must do — now The policy framework exists. The evidence is overwhelming. What is needed now is organized, sustained, and loud women’s business advocacy from women entrepreneurs around the world. Here is what every reader of this magazine can do: ■ Demand a seat for women at every AI governance table — corporate AI ethics boards, government advisory panels, industry task forces. If we are not in the room, we probably won’t be included in the policy. ■ Make AI bias audits a procurement condition. Before our companies buy or use any AI tool for hiring, lending, or customer decisions, we must ask the vendor: Has this system been audited for gender bias? Can you show me the results? ■ Build peer learning communities so no woman entrepreneur feels alone, judged, or left behind. The confidence gap is real — and it is solvable through community, not criticism. ■ Treat AI fluency as the new business literacy. We do not all need to be data scientists. We need to be informed enough to ask the right questions, use the right tools, and demand the right standards. ■ Use our collective voice as a powerful constituency. Write to our government representatives. Show up at public comment periods. Let elected officials know that women entrepreneurs are a constituency with economic weight — and we care deeply about how AI is governed for good. 123 years is a World Economic Forum projection. It is not a prophecy. Projections assume the variables stay the same. But women entrepreneurs around the world can be the variable that refuses to stay the same. Onward and ever upward! VIRGINIA LITTLEJOHN has been an entrepreneurship policy wonk since the mid-1970s. She was a past president of NAWBO, and one of the architects of the US Women’s Business Ownership Act of 1988. She co-heads the US delegation to the Women20 (W20) of the G20 countries and co-chairs its entrepreneurship working group. A long-time member of the Enterprising Women Advisory Board, Virginia has been inducted into the Enterprising Women Hall of Fame. Connect at virginia.littlejohn@gmail.com. enterprising Women 35
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