Study: Google Images under-represents female CEOs
Female CEOs in the US were significantly under-represented in Google Images' search results, prompting accusations of stereotyping and discrimination. Researchers at the University of Washington and University of Maryland discovered (pdf) that women account for 27 percent of CEOs in the US, but only 11 percent of the top 100 Google image search results returned images of females. They also found that f emale construction workers 'tended to be sexualised caricatures of construction workers'. The researchers also discovered that the first picture of a woman on Google Images is one of Barbie in a suit. The researchers argued that findings reinforced widely held perceptions of the kinds of people holding certain kinds of jobs, and left the technology company open to accusations of sexism and gender bias. System 🤖 Google Images 🔗 Operator: Alphabet/Google Developer: Alphabet/Google Country: USA Sector: Business/professional services Purpose: Rank search results Technology: Search engine algorithm; Machine learning Issue: Bias/discrimination
- Date it happened
- 2015-04-01
- Organisation involved
- Product, system or model
- Google Images
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