Look up “greatest engineer” or “greatest painter.” What do you find?
Very few women, if any. Now try “school girl.” You might be looking for
images of young girls studying in class, but instead you’ll find heavily
sexualized images of women in costume. Cultural stereotypes often
distort women’s achievements and potential, and this is no different in
search. In short, society has actually taught search engine algorithms
to become biased. That’s why Pantene is introducing a new search tool, S.H.E.
– Search. Human. Equalizer.
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S.H.E. shows us what a more equal world could look like
S.H.E. is a search tool that shows us what a more equal world could look
like by removing the bias in search. Available via Chrome
extension, S.H.E. operates on the search back end by filtering
results to produce less biased and more balanced results, ultimately
giving the women behind some of the world’s greatest accomplishments and
transformations the visibility they deserve.
The introduction of S.H.E. comes as the first chapter of Pantene’s new
“Power to Transform” campaign, which recognizes, celebrates and gives
visibility to women who transform their lives and the world around them
every day. For the past 20 years, Pantene has been working with Dr.
Marianne LaFrance at Yale University to understand how people feel about
their hair, how it affects happiness and even professional success. The
most recent study found that a great hair day contributes significantly
to positive feelings, including confidence, feeling happy and readiness
to conquer the day. To sum it up – a great hair day has the potential to
transform the way women feel and how they view the world.
“How one’s hair looks on any given day may seem like a trivial detail,
but it is proven to have a direct impact on our transformative actions
both big and small,” said Ilaria Resta, Vice President of Hair Care for
North America at Procter & Gamble. “As a leading brand for women, we see
the accomplishments and transformations women achieve daily, but the
reality is in some ways female-led transformations are not
visible. In fact, some of the most accomplished women aren’t even
visible in something we do over 3.5 billion times per day: Search.
That’s exactly why we created S.H.E.”
According to a Pew Research Center Study, 57% of searches across 105 job
categories underrepresented women in the results. Similarly – only 10%
of search results for “CEO” depict women, despite women comprising 28%
of the occupation. S.H.E. spotlights how cultural stereotypes and our
own personal biases have impacted these results based on how online
content is tagged, described, captioned and clicked over time. S.H.E.
operates on the search back end by filtering results to remove the bias
and ensure a more equal and accurate representation of women.
S.H.E. currently transforms over 150 of the most problematic search
terms based on volume and relevance. Users can grow S.H.E.’s
capabilities by submitting additional search terms for S.H.E. to
transform via the Chrome extension available at shetransforms.us.
Starting in July, the brand’s “Power to Transform” campaign will
spotlight women and the many ways they are transforming the world on a
daily basis. Meanwhile, Pantene is committed to nurturing female-led
transformations, through the announcement of a unique partnership with
the Wing. The $1 million partnership will help fund female entrepreneurs
and women-led businesses through a pitch investment competition, and
provide a first-of-its kind mentorship program between Wing members and
college-bound girls to help guide them through their own transformations.
Join us in seeing what a more equal world could look like by installing
the Chrome extension and searching via S.H.E. – With every new click on
an unbiased result, future search will become more equal as algorithms
learn.
To learn more, visit shetransforms.us
and join the conversation by using #PowerToTransform.
About Procter & Gamble
P&G serves consumers around the world with one of the strongest
portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Always®,
Ambi Pur®, Ariel®, Bounty®, Charmin®, Crest®, Dawn®, Downy®, Fairy®,
Febreze®, Gain®, Gillette®, Head & Shoulders®, Lenor®, Olay®, Oral-B®,
Pampers®, Pantene®, SK-II®, Tide®, Vicks®, and Whisper®. The P&G
community includes operations in approximately 70 countries worldwide.
Please visit http://www.pg.com
for the latest news and information about P&G and its brands.
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