Laura Vana Gür´s (Institute for Statistics and Mathematics) project, which deals with spotting gender bias in children’s books, was selected as one of two successful WU projects for funding in FWF´s 1000 ideas program.

“When asked to draw a mathematician,” Laura Vana Gür describes the idea of her project, “girls are twice more likely to draw a man than a woman, while boys almost universally draw a man. Gender stereotypes form early in the child’s development and are carried over throughout adolescence into adulthood, leaving long-lasting effects on emotional and cognitive development, while shaping activity and career choices as well as impacting academic performance. In this project, we aim to identify, measure and validate different aspects related to gender under- and misrepresentation in textual literature for pre- and primary-school children.

The measurement procedure will build on modern artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms for natural language processing. However, as it is well known that AI techniques may present drawbacks in terms of transparency and interpretability, we will complement them with state-of-the-art qualitative methods for literature review, data collection and validation procedure as well as with interdisciplinary collaborations.”

A total of 270 projects were submitted for the program the FWF started to promote high-risk research and exceptional research ideas at Austrian research institutions, of which 22 (8%) will be supported with funding.

Congratulations!