Pink for Princess, Blue for Superheroes: The Need to Examine Gender Sterotypes in Kid’s Products in Search and Recommendations
Published in The 5th KidRec Workshop co-located with ACM Interaction, Design, and Children Conference, 2021
Recommended citation: Raj, A., Milton, A., & Ekstrand, M. D. (2021). "Pink for Princess, Blue for Superheroes: The Need to Examine Gender Sterotypes in Kid's Products in Search and Recommendations " Proceedings of the 5th KidRec Workshop co-located with ACM Interation, Design, and Children Conference. http://ashleemilton.github.io/files/pinkKidRec2021.pdf
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.