Gender Balance Tool
Our integrated AI Gender Balance tool provide feedback on equality in your text. Live, in your CMS, while you write.
Writing news for everyone have never been easier!
"The gender tool from iMatrics helps us keep track of one aspect of mirroring the world in an easy and effective way."
Jens Pehrson
Gota Media
Gender Balance Tool
Our solution is effective in finding names and verifying them with high accuracy. The system also keeps a count of pronouns so that you don’t have to.
Find out how iMatrics teamed up with several major news publishers to create an easy way of working towards equality in the newsroom.
The Solution
Our solution centers on analyzing various forms of content – from newsletters, articles, and documents to speech-to-text transcriptions, reports, journals, social media posts, and blogs. It offers a robust and straightforward method for organizations aiming to measure equality in their communication.
How does it work?
Our analysis identifies individuals mentioned by their full names and references them using pronouns such as he/she, him/her and his/hers. To determine gender based on a name, we first check if it corresponds to a recognized individual with a known gender.
If not, we consult iMatrics' database to determine the most common gender associated with that name. If this doesn't provide clarity, we then check for any associated pronouns that might indicate gender. Names that yield ambiguous or no results are labeled as 'unknown'.
What happens to people who are not named?
For the analysis, individuals need to be mentioned by both first and last names to be counted. Exceptions are made in situations where only pronouns, such as 'he' or 'she', have been mentioned. In such cases, the analysis will count it as a unique male or female, respectively.
Watch the IPTC Autumn Meeting presentation by Jens and Fredrik and learn how the Gender Balance Tool can guide and inspire your editorial teams to reach a broader audience.
Gota Media, the Swedish media conglomerate, leads the way in utilizing technology for news creation and distribution to their audience.
One of their key initiatives is the Gender Balance Tool, a collaborative effort between Gota Media, Stampen Media, and iMatrics. This innovative tool is designed to be both user-friendly and highly effective for editorial purposes. Since its inception, more publishers have come on board, collectively working towards greater gender equality in news reporting.
What happens to names that are gender neutral?
For these names, the pronoun is examined in connection with the name to determine the gender of the person. Do certain types of mentions carry more weight than others? For instance, does a mention at the beginning of a text score higher than one placed further down? No, all mentions are scored equally, whether it's a full name, a single name following a full name, or a pronoun. If I refer to a person as 'The Baker' or 'The Prime Minister', is that included in the analysis? No, only names and pronouns are considered in the analysis.
How did it all start?
Joint Project
Two of Sweden's major media houses, Gota Media and Stampen, were keen on enhancing equality in news representation. However, they found that accessing relevant data was intricate, demanding, and time-intensive. Given their prior collaboration with us at iMatrics, they approached us to see if we could assist in addressing this challenge.
For us at iMatrics, sustainability and equality stand at the forefront of our values. Consequently, we promptly assembled a team of dedicated individuals for the project. In 2021, we embarked on a joint initiative to develop a real-time tool capable of recognizing and verifying names and pronouns. This tool offers writers real-time feedback as they create content, enabling them to adjust for greater equality. Simultaneously, the editorial in chief receives live updates on representation in specific areas over diverse time frames.
Result
The project yielded promising results and rapidly expanded as more clients came on board, offering valuable feedback and data to further enhance the service. The service is now integrated into many of our clients' CMS across different languages. Both our clients and we are convinced that our Gender Balance Tool is an ideal solution for companies aiming to produce content with greater equality. It's quick, real-time, precise, adaptable, and as a straightforward REST API it is compatible with most CMS platforms.
Possibilities in other industries
Recently, we've engaged with companies from diverse industries that generate substantial text across multiple platforms and channels. We're optimistic about seeing our Gender Balance Tool service being used by our first company outside the media sector soon. If you're interested in applying gender analysis to your content, don't hesitate to get in touch!