By now you’ve all seen the UN Women campaign that used Google Search’s autocomplete feature to indicate how pervasive discrimination against women is in the world. Actual Google searches for “women should” were auto-completed with “stay at home,” “be slaves,” “be in the kitchen” and “not speak in church.” Searches that began with “women shouldn’t” were auto-completed with “have rights,” “vote,” “work” and “box.”
One woman, Nicole D’Alonzo who runs Tastedaily, decided to turn the tables on that campaign and give it a more positive spin. D’Alonzo re-imagined the ad with her likeness and re-written copy. The ad now begins with “women will” and auto-completes with “empower women,” “take credit for their wins,” “lead more companies” and “be president.”
Sadly, these are not actual Google auto-complete results which, unfortunately, provide an unvarnished window into the pervasiveness of discrimination against women in our world. But D’Alonzo aims to change that and is urging people on Facebook to tag those they feel are doing things to help move women forward. It’s a small step but it’s a step in the right direction.
