Plan International Hosts International Girls in ICT Day Event on AI, Gender Bias, and Future Skills

Plan International Japan, an international NGO based in Setagaya, Tokyo and chaired by Kiyoko Ikegami, held an online event on April 22, 2026, ahead of the UN-designated International Girls in ICT Day. The event, titled “How Will AI Change Your Future? The Power to Detect Gender Bias and Open Up the Future,” drew more than 100 participants, ranging from students to working adults. International Girls in ICT Day is one of the international days established by the United Nations and is observed every year on the fourth Thursday of April. In 2026, it falls on Thursday, April 23. The day aims to encourage girls and women to explore learning and career opportunities in the field of information and communications technology. The event featured Kumiko Morita, a director at Waffle, a nonprofit organization working to close the gender gap in technology, as a guest speaker. Together with student members of Plan’s youth group, she took part in an interactive session on generative AI and gender. An archived video of the event is available for viewing until June 14. At the beginning of the event, participants joined a workshop designed to help them experience gender gaps embedded in AI. The same prompt was entered into generative AI with only the gender changed: “I am a male high school student good at science” and “I am a female high school student good at science. Please give me advice about my future path.” The responses were then compared. The results revealed several stereotypical patterns. AI used expressions such as “rikejo,” or science-oriented girl, for girls, while no equivalent expression was used for boys. It recommended only girls to find role models. Among many possible careers, it tended to recommend education-related jobs to girls in science. It also referred to anxiety only in the responses for girls, with phrases such as, “You may feel worried that science seems difficult or that there are few girls.” These examples showed that AI may assume anxieties on behalf of users and reflect stereotypes such as equating girls in science with teaching careers. Students who experienced the workshop expressed surprise. One said they were shocked that the AI they use in daily life produced such large differences, noting that the advice for female students emphasized stability, qualifications, and secure skills, while the advice for male students recommended engineering, technology, manufacturing, and IT. Another student said they noticed gender bias when “cosmetics-related” careers appeared only in the response for the female high school student and not in the male version, adding that they had never compared responses by gender before. Morita then explained why gender bias becomes embedded in AI and highlighted points to watch for when using AI, including hallucinations, or the generation of information not grounded in fact. She noted that because AI learns from a wide range of data on the internet, it also learns social biases as they are. If past data often depicts men as leaders and women in support roles, AI tends to make similar judgments. She added that because Japan has a large gender gap, such bias is especially likely to appear in AI training data. Morita also outlined the current gender gap in ICT. Globally, women remain underrepresented in the sector, accounting for less than 31 percent of the AI-related industry. She also introduced survey findings showing that the usage rate of generative AI is 46 percent among men and 32 percent among women. Reports from Japan and abroad were cited as warning that AI may not eliminate the gender gap, but could instead widen it. She identified the lack of diversity among developers as the largest factor behind the gender gap. Women remain underrepresented among STEM executives, accounting for about 12 percent in the United States, and women and minorities are also underrepresented among those who design, develop, and evaluate AI. This makes bias harder to correct. Morita emphasized that “who builds it” is directly connected to gender equality across society. Morita also discussed the risk that some jobs may be more easily replaced by AI and that women may be more likely to be affected. She proposed three actions people can take. First, improve AI literacy by understanding how AI works, using it directly, and continuing to experiment in diverse ways. Second, notice bias and question it by asking whether AI outputs are true or biased. Third, join the side that creates AI, because increasing the participation of women and minorities in AI design, development, and evaluation is one of the most important resources for minimizing the impact of bias. Through the event, participants reaffirmed the importance of approaching information provided by AI with a critical perspective. The event also shared the message that a more equal future can be opened up by enabling people with diverse perspectives to participate in creating AI, understand how it works, and continue experimenting for themselves. Participants commented that asking AI, “Is this biased?” is an interesting method; that although they often use AI and know they should not trust it too much, its convenience leads them to rely on it for many things; and that the event helped them understand the importance of questioning AI critically while valuing real human relationships and society. Another participant said discovering that AI also contains gender bias was new to them, and that they now feel it is necessary to use AI with that awareness. They added that the important thing is to decide for oneself what to do to achieve one’s goals, regardless of whether AI is involved, and that gender bias can also affect men and non-binary people. Plan International works in more than 80 countries with children, young people, and various stakeholders to realize an equal and just world for all. The organization identifies and addresses the causes of inequality faced by children and girls. It supports children from birth to adulthood so that they can overcome difficulties and adversity through their own strength.