Thanks to a tweet from sociologist Sarah Sobieraj, we learned of a powerful campaign to raise awareness about gender inequality from the arm of the United Nations dedicated to empowering women. The designers of the ads did Google searches, allowing the auto-complete to fill in word stems with the most commonly searched phrases. The results are eyebrow-raising.
I was curious to find out what my personal Google machine would spit out and, also, what the equivalent searches for men would return. Below, I reproduce the ads, followed by my own results. Eyebrow-raising. As a bonus, I did the searches for feminists.
I guess we still need feminism. Unfortunately…
Cross-posted at Talking Points Memo and Pacific Standard.
Comments 49
Sasha — October 20, 2013
I lost my eyebrows
Anna — October 20, 2013
I tried "women can" and there weren´t any suggestions at all whereas men apparently can - fix anything, -multitask, and - lactate.
Kate — October 20, 2013
That is perhaps the most depressing collection I've ever seen. The thought of the tiny drip by drip effect of all those searches makes me shudder.
FYouMudFlaps — October 20, 2013
Confirmed the results. Sick really.
Tom Megginson — October 20, 2013
This post by my friend Marc on Osocio gives some interesting context: http://osocio.org/message/the_shocking_answers_from_googles_autocomplete_feature_on_sexism/
anonymous coward — October 20, 2013
This method is so unsound I don't even know where to start. My students don't understand women's history, male privilege, etc. I can guarantee that a number of my young female college students have googled "women should stay at home". They google it to understand the sentiment not because they share it. This totally misunderstands how most people use the Internet.
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Elizabeth Cook — October 21, 2013
Interesting way to catch attention to the inequality that exists.As most , I assume, have seen these Google "suggestions" .
cbry — October 21, 2013
What about feminists can:
feminists can be christians too
feminists can change anything
feminists can be bullies too
Emma — October 21, 2013
Similarly depressing results arise if you put in 'disabled people should' or 'old people should'. And if you enter 'old people can', most of the suggestions that appear actually start with 'old people can't'.
On the other hand, I entered 'young people should', and it brought back a positive set of statements such as 'young people should be encouraged to pursue long term goals' and 'young people should vote'. The only statement for 'young people should' that could be construed as 'anti' young people in any way was 'young people should obey their elders'.
Letta Wren Page — October 21, 2013
Also see: http://thesocietypages.org/sociologylens/2013/10/21/autocompletes-of-sexism-and-inequality
Zsick — October 21, 2013
I tried one. I googled "Men Cannot..." among the suggestions were "Get HIV from women" and "pick up chair."
What do you suppose is the meaning of the chair thing?
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torr10 — October 21, 2013
what a moronic article....type in 'feminism' and see what you get...you get feminism. If we google 'waste of college education' would the results be Linda Wade, PhD?
jennifer joy — October 21, 2013
We do need men. We need good feminist men who will fight with us.
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Muggle in Converse — October 23, 2013
I wrote a blog post about this when I first saw it. The fact that these phrases are searched with regularity is beyond disturbing.
Here's the blog: http://muggleinconverse.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/men-are-from-earth-women-are-from-earth-deal-with-it-george-carlin/
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Bill R — November 3, 2013
Data without analysis does not explain phenomena.
smashladeuce — November 8, 2013
i just did this on my own just to see. the fact that it was completely accurate just made me ... sad
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A Friend — December 22, 2013
I'm 18, and I'm male. I have the utmost respect for women, and I would never let a women be treated poorly because she is female. I think belittling someone for any reason like ethnicity or sex is wrong. The only problem is that a lot of women who I've met that are feminist immediately despise me for being an 18 year old white male. It's important to remember that men are not the enemy. Bigots are the enemy. If you've been treated badly, I know that it would be hard not to generalize that every man is like the man who hurt you. Just remember that you can find men who treat women with the respect they deserve and try not to be spiteful. You're just spreading the hatred of whoever hurt you.
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