Children are spoken to differently depending on their gender. Boys are most commonly spoken to about their abilities, while girls receive comments about their bodies — and little by little, this starts to influence how they see themselves, hindering their full potential. It reflects the appearance of a normal mobile keyboard, but the predictive text input has been altered to make empowering word suggestions. For example, if you type in “women,” the app suggests words such as “smart,” “lead,” and “strong.” And if users type the phrase “You look so,” the keyboard will provide words including “confident” and “smart;” it also changes “beautiful” to “happy.” The Android app also replaces popular gendered phrases and strips away its inherent stereotype. When users type “Girls are,” the keyboard suggests “brave” or “successful” instead of terms like “beautiful” and “pretty.”
This project aims to get people thinking about the values and biases that exist in language and to interrogate the gendered words they use and why. While Sheboard isn’t the full solution to gender stereotypes, it’s a way to start thinking and reacting to the way we talk to and about girls with the help of our smartphones. The app is currently only available on Android, you can download it here.
