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Female librarians and male computer programmers? Gender bias in occupational images on digital media platforms.

Media platforms, technological systems, and search engines act as conduits and gatekeepers for all kinds of information. They often influence, reflect, and reinforce gender stereotypes, including those that represent occupations. This study examines the prevalence of gender stereotypes on digital me...

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Published in:Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology Vol. 71; no. 11; pp. 1281 - 1295
Main Authors: Singh, Vivek K., Chayko, Mary, Inamdar, Raj, Floegel, Diana
Format: research tables/charts Journal Article
Published: Wiley-Blackwell Nov2020
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: Nov2020
      vid: 71
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      pub: Wiley-Blackwell
      place: Malden, Massachusetts
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        10.1002/asi.24335
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        atl: Female librarians and male computer programmers? Gender bias in occupational images on digital media platforms.
      aug:
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          Singh, Vivek K.
          Chayko, Mary
          Inamdar, Raj
          Floegel, Diana
        affil: School of Communication and Information, Rutgers University, New Brunswick New Jersey,
      sug:
        subj:
          Gender Bias
          Stereotyping
          Human
          Male
          Female
          Librarians
          Male
          Female
      ab: Media platforms, technological systems, and search engines act as conduits and gatekeepers for all kinds of information. They often influence, reflect, and reinforce gender stereotypes, including those that represent occupations. This study examines the prevalence of gender stereotypes on digital media platforms and considers how human efforts to create and curate messages directly may impact these stereotypes. While gender stereotyping in social media and algorithms has received some examination in the recent literature, its prevalence in different types of platforms (for example, wiki vs. news vs. social network) and under differing conditions (for example, degrees of human‐ and machine‐led content creation and curation) has yet to be studied. This research explores the extent to which stereotypes of certain strongly gendered professions (librarian, nurse, computer programmer, civil engineer) persist and may vary across digital platforms (Twitter, the New York Times online, Wikipedia, and Shutterstock). The results suggest that gender stereotypes are most likely to be challenged when human beings act directly to create and curate content in digital platforms, and that highly algorithmic approaches for curation showed little inclination towards breaking stereotypes. Implications for the more inclusive design and use of digital media platforms, particularly with regard to mediated occupational messaging, are discussed.
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        tables/charts
        Journal Article
      ougenre: Article
    language: English
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