Women Are Six Times Less Likely To Be Targeted With Ads For High-Paying Jobs By Google

A new survey has found that women are much less likely to see ads for high-paying jobs through Google. The tech company has this week been accused of contributing to gender discrimination after a study found that female users were six times less likely to be targeted with such advertisements. According to Silicon Republic, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) used 1,000 profiles (half male and half female) to visit 100 of the top recruitment sites to see which Google adverts would pop up. The most commonly-appearing advert was for a position with a career coaching service for executives that pays US$200,000 annually but it was shown six times less frequently on the female profiles. The ad was shown to men 1,800 times during the survey, compared with 300 in the female ones. Google has defended its position, saying that their software is "completely transparent" for people to see why they are being targeted with adverts. “Advertisers can choose to target the audience they want to reach, and we have policies that guide the type of interest-based ads that are allowed. We provide transparency to users with ‘Why This Ad’ notices and Ads Settings, as well as the ability to opt out of interest-based ads.”