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I Want an Assistant: Generative AI, Women’s Leadership, and the Redistribution of Invisible Labor

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: This essay examines generative AI (GenAI) through the lens of invisible labor, arguing that its significance for women’s leadership lies in its potential to recognize and redistribute routine forms of support work that have historically remained feminized, undervalued, and unseen. Referencing Judy Brady’s I Want a Wife and Ira Levin’s The Stepford Wives, the paper situates contemporary GenAI assistants within a longer history of gendered service, showing how professional success has long depended on hidden infrastructures of care, coordination, and administrative maintenance. The essay argues that GenAI might offer valuable assistance to women leaders when used deliberately as a bounded, supervised, and accountable collaborator rather than a frictionless servant. Ultimately, the paper contends that GenAI becomes most valuable when it makes support more visible, legitimate, and more equitably distributed.

Source: Merits

DOI: 10.3390/merits6020017

Authors: Marcela Kostihova, Irina Makarevitch

Institution: Hamline University

Language: English

Topic: Ethics and Social Impacts of AI

Subfield: Safety Research

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Gender equality, Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,207