Commissioned contribution to Fundació Bofill’s: Gender Inequalities Among Adolescents in Digital Environments. Written by Kate Arthur, Sophia Marshment.
One of the great pleasures of running my own companies is being able to invite my daughters to work with me. It not only provides insights into my work in AI literacy and gender equality, but it is also so much fun! In 2025, I had the opportunity to work with my 23-year-old daughter, Sophia Marshment, to research and write together. Sophia has been coding since she was 9 years old, and after 4 years studying computer science, she decided to switch university programs and is now in Women’s Studies. I couldn’t think of a better person to join me when the team at Fundació Bofill reached out to ask for a contributing piece on Gender Equality Among Adolescents in Digital Environments.
(photo: Sophia and Kate heading to Whitehorse, Yukon for Indigenous Women Entrepreneurs Workshop in Whitehorse Yukon)
Here is our piece.
In the ever-expanding digital space, literacy in digital technology is becoming ever more crucial. Despite this urgency, adolescents are often left out of public policy discussions regarding the role of emerging tech in society, which neglects their involvement in shaping the digital world—especially teenage girls, who are statistically more likely to spend over three hours a day on social media than boys. Teenage girls are disproportionately affected in areas such as their digital well-being, impacted technological aspirations, and access to learning opportunities outside of school. Despite spending more time with technology in daily usage, teenage girls are less likely to have an interest in learning computer programming, and they are more likely to experience discrimination online due to their gender, ethnicity, or physical appearance. When taking into account the rapid emergence of artificial intelligence (AI), these inequalities become amplified. Due to the way AI models are designed, developed, and deployed—particularly in the training and testing of data—AI systems have been shown to perpetuate gender biases, which only worsens disparities for girls. Proactive solutions in all adolescents’ learning environments need to be implemented, including education in AI, responsible integration of AI tools, and the strengthening of human connection and collaboration to tackle gender inequalities. In our evolving world, as the physical world is replicated in a digital one and physical and digital communities merge, it is crucial to start taking steps toward gender equity.
Major Challenges Ahead in Gender Equity and AI
There is an apparent gender bias that exists on the internet as a whole. Since the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web in the 1990s, gender biases have been integrated into lines of code, data collection, and online connections—and the emergence of AI has only begun to exacerbate this. Language learning models (LLMs) have been trained using scraped data from the internet, including social media platforms, without proper prevention measures in place. Therefore, these foundational models will continue to repeat and perpetuate the misogyny present on the internet. The lack of welcoming spaces for women in the creation of new tech does nothing to help this either—if marginalized voices are missing in the design, development, and deployment of new technology, the technology will fail to take their perspectives into account and will perpetuate the shortcomings and biases of its creators.
If LLMs are trained on social platforms where young girls are 12% more likely to experience discrimination than boys, would it not be expected for that LLM to reflect what it was fed and be 12% more likely to discriminate against girls itself? Teenagers are starting to rely more on AI in their daily lives, and as they create unprecedented relationships with LLMs, they may perpetuate isolation from their real-life peers and, especially, help perpetuate misogynistic ideals in young boys. There is little to be done about the increasing usage of AI among both youth and adults alike, but if everyone involved at every step of an LLM’s creation looks the same, none of them will even consider what happens when it encounters someone different—which is why we need to start centring marginalized voices in the creation of AI-powered tools.
Key Questions and Action Proposals
As tech innovations continue to be integrated, without proper guardrails, into society at incredible speed, adolescents need to be conscious and critical when interacting with them. What skills should we be teaching adolescents? How can we make sure that girls are included and welcomed in tech? We need to critique and ask ourselves questions so we can grow, rather than accept the current world as given. As regulations rapidly fall behind in the face of evolving AI, a few points will be crucial to fostering a future of gender equity in digital environments:
- Digital Literacy in Education
Tech literacy—and, in recent years, AI literacy—should be an essential part of school curricula, focusing on teaching students how computers and algorithms work, how data gets collected and analysed, how their own data gets collected, and the ethical implications of emerging technologies. They should be aware of environmental and human impacts of tech, and of the exploitative nature of the internet. Students should understand how LLMs take in and propagate biases present on the existing internet and in their creators. They should be encouraged and empowered to engage critically with AI systems and be able to make sound decisions about what they choose to engage in. - Upskilling Educators for Inclusive Learning
Teachers, mentors, and community leaders must be trained to create inclusive, gender-sensitive learning environments. They should learn to deliver engaging content that encourages sustainable collaboration among all genders and be sensitive to the hurdles or challenges some may face in the field due to their gender. Instructors must also allow for communication, collaboration, and community building in classrooms, ensuring that girls feel supported and encouraged to pursue further education in tech, and that boys are taught from an early age to engage with and uphold girls in these environments. Diversity is a strength in environments conducive to learning, and a strength when it comes to new innovations in tech, including AI. - Emphasizing Human Skills
It is crucial to cultivate human-to-human collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking in educational settings. Our digital world has no borders, and learning to engage and interact with different viewpoints and cultures is key to building healthy and safe digital spaces. Schools should encourage group problem-solving, emphasising teamwork and interpersonal relationships, so students can develop strong human bonds while also learning to interact with tech. They should not solely rely on AI and should instead see its value as a supportive—but potentially dangerous—tool, while continuing to exercise their own problem-solving skills. This approach will help youth build both technical and human skills needed for future careers. They should be made aware of the reliance on human labour in tech, and focusing on human skills will make them more conscious of crucial ethical viewpoints when they enter the industry and start innovating AI and other technologies themselves.
Conclusion
Empowering adolescents and educators with essential knowledge, skills, and tools to navigate AI responsibly is critical for a future where technology nurtures equity. Integrating AI literacy into education can demystify how biases are embedded in tech, enabling young people to approach digital tools with a critical eye and take agency in their own decision-making. Educator training to create inclusive, gender-sensitive learning environments can help bridge tech engagement gaps, ensuring that girls feel encouraged and boys learn to value diversity in tech fields. By emphasizing collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity, we can equip students to interact with technology responsibly while retaining essential human skills. These proactive steps—AI literacy, inclusive education, and a human-centred approach—are essential to fostering a digital landscape that values and benefits all genders equally, making it possible for every young person to participate fully in our evolving tech-driven world.
The Fundació Bofill is a Barcelona-based foundation dedicated to improving education through research, public debate, and initiatives that promote equity and opportunity for all learners.
RESET analyses how gender inequalities are reproduced and intensified in digital environments, especially during adolescence. Drawing on recent data (PISA and ICILS) and the contributions of a panel of experts, the journal provides a detailed overview of the risks, opportunities, and gaps experienced by girls in the digital sphere in Catalonia.
This publication explores four major dimensions: ensuring well-being, challenging stereotypes, balancing opportunities, and anticipating challenges. It sets out 16 proposals to move towards a digital revolution that is fairer, more inclusive, and free from discrimination.
Leave a comment