This Project Wants To Correct The Internet’s Representation Of Women In Sport

Despite their achievements and numerous awards, female athletes continue to rank lower in search results compared to their male counterparts. Fortunately, this project is trying to fix the algorithm to give women’s sport the wider reach it deserves.

There’s no shortage of sporting moments that live rent-free in our minds, like a tapestry in the mind that we can gaze at with a mere blink of an eye: there are the stadium lights, the fanfares, the crowds, maybe even a podium finish line or victory celebrations . From Cathy Freeman to Ash Barty and the dominance of the Australian women’s cricket team, women’s sport has continued to produce iconic moments and athletes who inspire a new generation of fans. But unlike their male counterparts, such awards and achievements are often sidelined, especially when it comes to the internet.

According to research, Google answers over 8.5 billion queries per day, with Bing also handling around 900 million searches. But while these search engines may be our first port of call for information and wisdom — from health-related questions to life advice and sports scores — they’re not always accurate. And when it comes to women athletes and their sports results, these inaccuracies reflect a disadvantage they face around the world.

For young fans in particular, such a reality means female athletes are harder to come by. At a time when representation is crucial to inspire, for young girls who search the internet for female athletes around the world, images and articles on the greatest male athletes and their achievements are instead revealed. This is despite the fact that women have achieved better results than men in sports.

For this reason the project Correct The Internet was born. The project is trying to create a tool to correct such inaccuracies, which abound on the Internet, and is working to provide feedback to search engines. As the project details, Christine Sinclair has scored more goals than Cristiano Ronaldo in international football, while Steffi Graf has spent more time as No. 1 in tennis than Novak Djokovic. Considering these facts, one must be amazed that such achievements are not reflected in a cursory Internet search.

As Maher Nasser, Director of the Outreach Division of the United Nations Division for Global Communications, explains: “As reliance on Internet search engines to find information increases, algorithms assume that human bias, conscious and unconscious, is the natural order of things are and are increasing results corresponding to that.”

Nasser adds, “Gender equality starts with recognizing the prejudices and challenges women and girls face, and campaigns like Correct the Internet are a great way to uncover how those same prejudices have invaded the virtual world. “

Because Correct The Internet wants to do just that – correct the internet – they’ve also created a simple tool to get the word out and ensure the algorithm reflects the growing dominance of women in all sports. To learn more, visit the official website here.