Women-led teams take on job losses in AI sector

Image caption, Liu Mingyuan's all-female 'Qiang Qiang Workers' team is one of many women's repair and renovation teams spreading across Chinese cities.

Published 9 minutes ago

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Alice Huang turned to a practical alternative as AI declines in the tech sector, marginalizing programmers like her. She swapped her keyboard for power tools and launched an all-female home repair service in May under the name 'Qiang Qiang Female Workers'.

Instead of commuting daily to the office park in southern China, where she spent 15 years climbing the ranks to management, Huang now works in hot and humid conditions, moving between apartments carrying her tool bag, wearing dust-covered work clothes.

She told BBC Chinese: "I always imagined staying in the tech sector until retirement. When the layoffs started, it felt like a bucket of cold water was poured over me."

This career change puzzles her older relatives, who belong to a generation that helped turn China into an economic powerhouse through hard work. They always advised her to study hard to avoid manual labor.

But Huang, a university graduate over 40, found herself, along with many of her colleagues, let go due to the rapid advances of AI.

Citibank estimated in April that 9.6 percent of total jobs in China—nearly 70 million positions—are at risk of being replaced by AI.

Women are a minority in the global tech workforce. But according to the WomenTech Network, women are 1.6 times more likely to be laid off due to "underrepresentation in leadership positions" and "jobs that may not be technical."

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Image caption, Women in China are moving from white-collar office jobs to home repair services.

Entire departments disappeared overnight, as AI could accomplish tasks that previously required multiple teams in just seconds.

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She said: "Technological development was extremely fast, and we saw organizational restructuring everywhere. Sometimes you have no choice but to leave."

After exploring options for work that would not be affected by AI, Huang decided to return to the same profession her family practiced: construction and home renovation.

"I thought I would probably succeed because I watched them work all my life. I understood every step they took."

Image caption, Liu Mingyuan said she left her job in telecommunications in 2023 'to learn a practical skill.'

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She is not alone in making this shift. Over the past two years, women in cities like Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Suzhou have swapped their office jobs for cleaning air conditioners, replacing toilet fixtures, removing paint, and retiling bathrooms.

Liu Mingyuan said of her colleagues on the 'Qiang Qiang Workers' team in Shenzhen: "One was a music teacher, others worked in office jobs, and some in media."

After nearly a decade working in telecommunications, Liu left her job in 2023 'to learn a practical skill.'

She added: "Having a craft means I can support myself, and I also hope to help other women."

In a male-dominated sector, female repair workers have found their services in high demand from another fast-growing group: single women.

Liu estimates that 98 percent of her clients are women, most of whom live alone or share an apartment with other women.

When they inquire about services, they rarely start by asking about the price.

Liu said: "Almost everyone asks: 'Will a female technician come?' They want confirmation that it is definitely a woman. Safety is their top priority. We understand that."

The number of singles in China rose to about 240 million, or 17 percent of the population, in 2021, according to official data. A study by the real estate platform 'Beike' indicates that about 30 percent of households will be inhabited by a single woman by 2030.

This shift is partly due to the increasing number of educated women in cities who are delaying marriage. Initially looked down upon as 'sheng nu' (leftover women), many are now choosing to stay single, defying social and government pressure to marry and start a family.

The growing consumer base has led to a variety of services tailored to their needs, with ambitious women moving into traditionally male-dominated professions such as ride-hailing, food delivery, and increasingly, home renovation.

While the single women's economy may foster mutual support that enhances their capabilities, it also stems from deeper social concerns, as women cannot guarantee their physical safety, explained Zhou Yun, a sociologist specializing in Chinese affairs at the University of Michigan.

Image caption, Maintenance teams receive many requests from women living alone to join the growing single women's economy.

A client of an all-female home repair team in Suzhou told the BBC that she prefers female technicians over male ones because their presence makes her feel more comfortable.

She said: "When they work in the bedroom, I can confidently focus on my work in the living room."

She also noted that they are careful to cover her furniture to protect it from dirt, return it to its original place after finishing, and wipe the floor.

She added: "The most important thing for me was not just fixing the lamp, but that I no longer felt treated with indifference or in a superficial way."

Sexism, stigma, and stereotypes

Shortly after launching her service, Huang was surprised by the volume and variety of demand.

She said a client might say: "I'm going on a business trip, and I have a cat at home. Can one of your workers take care of it? Or: My mother is elderly, and I am busy at work and don't feel comfortable leaving her alone. Can one of your workers come to help her?"

She added: "Then we realized that an all-female team can help people in many more ways than we initially imagined."