Gender and the Automation of Public Law: The Start of a New Conversation

Administrative law and digital government scholarship devote scarce attention to gender. Recent debates on the regulation of AI and digital government have focused predominantly on human-centered perspectives, disregarding the importance of gender in defining the human element or implicitly assuming the gender neutrality of the debate. Yet, gender is a relevant dimension of automated government which if overlooked, may lead to the exclusion of many citizens. This has proven to be particularly detrimental to women, whose needs, socioeconomic circumstances, and biological differences are either invisible to public decision-makers or are regarded with suspicion as ‘deviations’ from a male or gender-neutral pattern. For example, recent scandals on the automation of social welfare (e.g., Robodebt in Australia and the Dutch Childcare Benefits Scandal) affected predominantly women, especially single mothers. This invisibility of gender is exacerbated when digitalization and automation replicate stereotypes, patriarchal approaches to the role of women in society, and longstanding dynamics of power and inequality. Drawing on interdisciplinary scholarship including feminist and gender studies, this paper explains why gender should be more closely considered in the regulation of AI in the public sector, digital government, and automated decision-making.