imageA UNWomen advertising  campaign reveals profound discriminatory attitudes towards women.

It was with horror and deep distress that – following on from reading the recent ad campaign run by UN Women which exposed how deep rooted sexism by looking up through Google search suggestions – I typed ‘Women will’ in to the Google search bar.

The resulting ‘top search suggestion’ finished the sentence with ‘Women will never be equal to men’.

Utterly chilling.

The UN Women’s campaign, publicised last month, was based on real searches entered into Google in March 2013.

Developed for UN Women by the creative marketing company Memac Ogilvy and Mather Dubai, the campaign illustrated the outcomes of entering the beginning of sentences and noting the Google search suggestions or ‘autocomplete’ as it is known.

Typing in ‘Women should’ resulted in the statements – in order as listed – ‘Women should stay at home’; ‘Women should be slaves’; ‘Women should be in the kitchen’ and ‘Women should not speak in church’.

In a personal capacity I entered ‘Women know’ and was treated to – again in order as listed by Google – ‘Women know your limits’ and ‘Women know your place’, with subsequent deviations of the same theme

According to a Google help page: ‘The search queries that you see as part of autocomplete are a reflection of the search activity of all web users’.

The heart sinks.

UN Women said that ‘the searches confirm the urgent need to continue making the case for women’s rights, empowerment and equality’.

They are ‘heartened by the initial strong reaction to the ads and hope they will spark constructive dialogue globally’.

Jessica Lee, of Search Engine Watch, explores and highlights the difficulties, dangers and controversies surrounding autocorrect.

She said that Google already censors autocomplete, and wondered if Google will look into the propagation of stereotypes in light of this campaign.

Lee also that observed the absence of intent was available in these autocomplete searches, and asked: ‘Are people searching for the answer to these queries because they are trying to gain an understanding in to another group they are not familiar with, or are they fuelled by hate?’

This issue must be explored further, and the ensuing dialogues engaged with by Google.

For out of all the search suggestions that we are given, it seems most important that ‘Women should’ not have to experience discrimination.

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