Does Google Not Understand Women Or Just Geek Women?

[Xithras]

1. That's the problem with algorithms.

No "person" at Google made that decision, but it's the result of algorithms that look at browsing patterns and determine the most plausible demographics. A Kenyan might speak fluent Hindi on a daily basis, but the system is probably going to guess that they're from India if they're regularly doing searches in Hindi, simply because that's where most Hindi speakers are from. There will always be outliers that don't fit the statistical mold, but they are usually ignored so long as the numbers are small enough.

The numbers here are simple. Less than 23% of tech jobs are held by women. Less than 18% of computer related degrees are held by women. Less than 15% of Wikipedia articles are written by women. Less than 3% of Open Source developers are women.

Geek women are outliers. If you want to change that, convince more women to go into technical fields. Until then, Google is simply reflecting the reality of that particular demographic.