Advances in Economics, Management and Political Sciences

- The Open Access Proceedings Series for Conferences


Proceedings of the 2023 International Conference on Management Research and Economic Development

Series Vol. 23 , 13 September 2023


Open Access | Article

Gender Bias in Hiring: An Analysis of the Impact of Amazon's Recruiting Algorithm

Xinyu Chang * 1
1 University of Washington

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Advances in Economics, Management and Political Sciences, Vol. 23, 134-140
Published 13 September 2023. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by EWA Publishing
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Citation Xinyu Chang. Gender Bias in Hiring: An Analysis of the Impact of Amazon's Recruiting Algorithm. AEMPS (2023) Vol. 23: 134-140. DOI: 10.54254/2754-1169/23/20230367.

Abstract

Algorithmic bias in artificial intelligence (AI) is a growing concern, especially in the employment sector, where it can have devastating effects on both individuals and society. Gender discrimination is one of the most prevalent forms of algorithmic bias seen in numerous industries, including technology. The underrepresentation of women in the field of information technology is a well-known issue, and several organizations have made tackling this issue a top priority. Amazon, one of the world's top technology businesses, has been at the forefront of initiatives to increase inclusiveness and diversity in the sector. Concerns exist, however, that algorithmic bias in their recruitment process may perpetuate discrimination based on gender. This study intends to investigate these issues by employing an interpretive epistemology and utilizing interviews and focus groups to acquire a more nuanced knowledge of the subject, with key factors contributing to algorithmic gender bias in Amazon's recruitment process and recommend strategies for improving women's employment in information technology.

Keywords

algorithmic bias, gender discrimination, interpretivism, interviews, focus groups, and diversity

References

1. O'Sullivan, A. (2023, February 17). Amazon Marketplace Statistics 2022. eDesk. Retrieved February 24, 2023, from https://www.edesk.com/blog/amazon-statistics/#:~:text=Amazon%20has%20more%20than%20310,billion%20by%20Q4%20of%202022

2. Macrotrends. (n.d.). Amazon: Number of employees 2010-2022: AMZN. Retrieved February 25, 2023, from https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/AMZN/amazon/number-of-employees

3. Martínez, N., Vinas, A., & Matute, H. (2021, December 10). Examining potential gender bias in automated-job alerts in the Spanish market. Orbiscascade. Retrieved February 24, 2023, from https://orbiscascade-washington.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=cdi_plos_journals_2608861079&context=PC&vid=01ALLIANCE_UW%3AUW&lang=en&search_scope=UW_EVERYTHING&adaptor=Primo+Central&tab=UW_default&query=any%2Ccontains%2Calgorithm+gender+bias&offset=10

4. Dastin, J. (2018, October 10). Amazon scraps secret AI recruiting tool that showed bias against women. Reuters. Retrieved February 24, 2023, from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-jobs-automation-insight/amazon-scraps-secret-ai-recruiting-tool-that-showed-bias-against-women-idUSKCN1MK08G

5. Tang, S., Zhang, X., Cryan, J., Metzger, M., Zheng, H., & Zhao, B. (2017, November). Gender Bias in the Job Market: A Longitudinal Analysis. Shibboleth authentication request. Retrieved February 24, 2023, from https://dl-acm org.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/doi/pdf/10.1145/3134734

6. Clarke, A., Kossoris, S. N., & Stahel, P. F. (2021). Strategies to Address Algorithmic Bias: A Systematic Review. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 28(2), 392-402.

7. Booth, L. A., & Walsh, J. P. (2020). Challenging Gender Bias in Tech: Insights from Female Early Career IT Professionals. Journal of Business and Psychology, 35(6), 719-734.

8. Turner, K., Landivar, L. C., Moraes, M. A., & Ross, K. M. (2021). Bridging the Gap: Examining the Intersection of Gender, Race, and Experiences of Discrimination in the IT Workplace. Gender, Work & Organization, 28(2), 510-527.

9. Mukherjee, S., Venkataraman, A., Liu, B., & Gluck, K. A. (2018). Exploring gender bias in natural language processing: A literature review. Proceedings of the 2018 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing: System Demonstrations, 101-106. doi: 10.18653/v1/D18-2018.

10. Cheek, J. (2021). Big data, Thick Data, Digital Transformation, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Why Qualitative Inquiry is more Relevant than Ever. In Collaborative Futures in Qualitative Inquiry (pp. 122-142). Routledge.

11. Franzke, A. S., Bechmann, A., Zimmer, M., Ess, C., & Association of Internet Researchers. (2020). Internet Research: Ethical Guidelines 3.0. Retrieved from https://aoir.org/reports/ethics3.pdf

Data Availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Authors who publish this series agree to the following terms:

1. Authors retain copyright and grant the series right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this series.

2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the series's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this series.

3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See Open Access Instruction).

Volume Title
Proceedings of the 2023 International Conference on Management Research and Economic Development
ISBN (Print)
978-1-915371-89-8
ISBN (Online)
978-1-915371-90-4
Published Date
13 September 2023
Series
Advances in Economics, Management and Political Sciences
ISSN (Print)
2754-1169
ISSN (Online)
2754-1177
DOI
10.54254/2754-1169/23/20230367
Copyright
© 2023 The Author(s)
Open Access
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Copyright © 2023 EWA Publishing. Unless Otherwise Stated