Michael Ekstrand

Pink for Princesses, Blue for Superheroes

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KidRec21
2021

Amifa Raj, Ashlee Milton, and Michael D. Ekstrand. 2021. Pink for Princesses, Blue for Superheroes: The Need to Examine Gender Stereotypes in Kids’ Products in Search and Recommendations. In Proceedings of the 5th International and Interdisciplinary Workshop on Children & Recommender Systems (KidRec '21), at IDC 2021. arXiv:2105.09296. NSF PAR 10335669. Cited 6 times. Cited 4 times.

Download PDF (arXiv)

This paper was led by my Ph.D student Amifa Raj.

Abstract

In this position paper, we argue for the need to investigate if and how gender stereotypes manifest in search and recommender systems. As a starting point, we particularly focus on how these systems may propagate and reinforce gender stereotypes through their results in learning environments, a context where teachers and children in their formative stage regularly interact with these systems. We provide motivating examples supporting our concerns and outline an agenda to support future research addressing the phenomena.

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