Google Images under-represents female CEOs

Female CEOs in the US are significantly under-represented in Google Images' search results, according to a 2015 research study.

Researchers at the University of Washington and University of Maryland discovered (pdf) that women account for 27 percent of CEOs in the US, but only 11 percent of the top 100 Google image search results returned images of females. They also found that female construction workers 'tended to be sexualised caricatures of construction workers'.

The researchers also discovered that the first picture of a woman on Google Images is one of Barbie in a suit. The researchers argued that findings reinforced widely held perceptions of the kinds of people holding certain kinds of jobs, and left the technology company open to accusations of sexism and gender bias.