We’ve often heard promises that technology would empower women. In many ways, it has. Around the world, something as simple as a mobile phone is helping women challenge traditional barriers. For many, it has become a gateway to independence. This is the vision behind UN SDG Target 5.b: using technology as a tool for gender equality. If we crack this goal, we have a chance of adding an estimated $1.5 trillion to global GDP by 2030.
Yet behind the promises lies a more complicated reality, one that may feel like a letdown. While technology continues to hold immense potential for progress, for some, it could be closing more doors than it is opening. From algorithms that reproduce traditional inequalities to industries profiting from women’s personal data, the digital world has become a reflection of the world’s hierarchies. Exclusion and exploitation have become two sides of the same coin, creating a ‘Digital Glass Ceiling’ that is still holding women back.
AI is often promoted as an objective tool that can eliminate human bias from decision-making. The irony? Time and again, it ends up amplifying it. Across industries, systems built on ‘neutral’ data quietly reproduce old inequalities in new ways. The first warning signs appeared back in 2018, when Amazon’s hiring algorithm was found to penalise CVs with words like “women’s”. Years later, the issue remains unresolved. In 2024, researchers confirmed that AI résumé-screening tools used in numerous industries were still ranking female-associated names lower than male ones. That same year, the Dutch Human Rights Board ruled that Meta’s job-ad algorithm discriminated by gender, showing higher-paying roles primarily to men.
This bias isn’t confined to hiring. Even in finance, algorithms are allocating credit unevenly. Research by Women’s World Banking found that fintech credit-scoring systems risk excluding women because their financial histories are often underrepresented in the data. With similar patterns documented in the USA and Africa (Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa), this means women are more likely to be denied loans or offered less favourable terms, not because of financial risk, but because algorithms are trained on biased historical data.
When algorithms start making decisions about our lives, digital bias becomes economic bias, reinforcing structural inequality behind the façade of neutrality. But exclusion is only one dimension of the digital glass ceiling.
Beyond the algorithms that deny women access, an entire industry of women’s health apps is profiting from women’s digital lives. Promoted as tools of empowerment, these FemTech apps cover everything from cycle tracking to menopause. It is a rapidly growing industry, projected to be worth tens of billions of dollars within the next decade. Yet as the market grows, so do concerns about how this data is collected and used. A 2024 study by the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy revealed that many popular cycle-tracking apps (CTA) share sensitive health information with third-party advertisers and analytics firms, often without users’ full awareness or consent. Few of us ever read the terms and conditions, yet that’s where consent is quietly redefined. And in the post-Roe v. Wade USA, this tool for personal well-being now appears more like a potential instrument of surveillance.
This exploitation crosses national borders. In countries with weaker privacy protections, users face a greater risk of their health data being collected and commercialised. It’s a form of ‘data colonialism’, with old power hierarchies being reflected in a new digital form under the pretext of women’s empowerment. Even in regions with stricter regulations, such as the EU, the sense of safety can be misleading. While the GDPR offers protection, many FemTech apps are based in the USA and transfer data to American servers, where privacy standards are weaker. For women in Europe, this means their personal data can still be used, shared or monetised beyond their control. This is a reminder that the digital glass ceiling isn’t only about access, it’s also about who controls information.
The promise of the digital age was that technology would serve as the ultimate tool for gender equality, finally breaking the glass ceiling. Yet the truth is, the ceiling still stands. And now it has even gone digital. If biased algorithms reveal how women are excluded from opportunities, the FemTech industry shows how their inclusion can also be exploited. Together, they expose a paradox at the heart of progress. If we want technology to empower women in practice, not just in promise, we must demand accountability, transparency and global standards that ensure innovation serves all of humanity, not just half of it.
November 04, 2025
By Disha Mandowara
