Oregon State University
IN-24: Innovation A

Researchers at Oregon State have created a method called GenderMag that enables IT professionals to identify and eliminate gender biases in the software they create, configure, or purchase, to make the software more equitable.

The GenderMag research team is led by two OSU professors, Margaret Burnett and Anita Sarma, both with the College of Engineering, who have pushed OSU to lead the fight against gender bias in its own IT.

Much of the software available has built-in biases, often against women and minorities. Such biases can impact how easily users can find critical information, perform work tasks, or even navigate web sites.

The GenderMag method is based on research about the diversity of cognitive styles—how people of different genders think and solve problems. These differences are not a matter of intellect but are important in assessing how potential software users might make choices or navigate technology based on their cognitive styles. For example, when users are trying to figure out how to perform a task using software, some people tend to select the first promising option and then move forward in an incremental style, while other people tend to gather information on many options, and then make their choice. These differences sometimes cluster by gender, but most software is optimized for only men's preferences.

Oregon State’s Information Technology unit, as well as other departments and programs on campus, are piloting the use of GenderMag. Burnett said OSU is the first university to use GenderMag to undertake a coordinated effort to remove these biases from its software. “We are staking our flag in the ground,” when it comes to leading the way in eliminating gender bias in user interfaces and workflows in academia's IT, Burnett said. “We are leading the pack.”