study on gender bias in clip art

Peter Smagorinsky (psmagorinsky who-is-at ou.edu)
Tue, 31 Mar 1998 08:13:02

I thought some people might be interested in the following reference:

Dyrud, M.A. (1997). An exploration of gender bias in computer clip art.
Business Communication Quarterly, 60(4), 30-51.

Reports an examination of over 14,000 clip art images from six different
Windows-based programs. Finds that only 4.54% of images depict women, and
those images are of typically stereotypical roles such as secretaries and
teachers. Offers speculations for lack of female images (male programmers
outnumber women 3-1, game designers are nearly exclusively male, etc.) and
suggestions for helping students to be aware of the male slant in clip art.

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