genderbias
Latest
Google is working to remove gender bias in its translations
Google has taken a step towards reducing gender bias on the Google Translate website. In the past, when a word could be translated in either a masculine or feminine form, only one translation was provided, and because Google Translate learns from existing examples of translations, biases in those samples can be transferred to Translate's responses. That could sometimes result in words like "strong" or "doctor" leading to masculine translations while words like "nurse" or "beautiful" could produce feminine translations. Now, however, for certain languages, Translate will offer both a masculine and a feminine translation when either might be appropriate.
In astronomy, women of color face the most discrimination
There's tons of evidence that women face a gender bias in the STEM fields. Last May, one report found that Facebook rejects female-authored code more often than code written by men. A female engineer who featured prominently in a recruiting advertisement faced a backlash for her gender alone. Even US governors are taking up the fight to get more girls interested in science and engineering because it's crucial to the field and the national economy. Unfortunately, a study by Girls Who Code found that the gender gap in computing is getting worse. The bad news continues with results from a new study that show women of color working in the astronomical and planetary fields experience "the highest rates of negative workplace experiences, including harassment and assault."
iTunes HD rentals: price discrimination against men
So what is it with the "guy tax" that Apple has added to its Apple TV rentals? You know what I mean. Rentals are $3.99 for women, $4.99 for men. See? Look at the picture. Because few women (other than our Christina) are going to look at that pricing structure and say "Oh wow, honey. Let's pay a dollar more so that we can enjoy the romance and relationships with better pixel counts."No, we women are going to say (except for Christina and a few others of her technical prowess) "What a rip!" and buy the SD version while our better halves explain in excruciating detail exactly why they bought that 1080p TV equipment in the first place, which we will ignore and still rent the cheaper version. And why? Because relationships are rarely improved by higher definition. In fact, it's the soft fuzziness (and lower cost) that keeps relationships mysterious and desirable. Especially in the morning before teeth are brushed.
