Why is Amazon's Alexa A Woman?

More often than not, we women are seen as supporters, helpers, and people on the sidelines.

Cortona, Siri, and Alexa are all virtual assistants from big companies like Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon. I find it hard to believe that they would arbitrarily choose to place a female identity as the voice to their assistants. There isn’t a decision about the customer experience that is made without careful deliberation and, undoubtedly this is one of them.

There must have been multiple iterations of the product that had gone through focus groups and beta versions, the one featuring the female identity must have been out on top. Unquestionably, this is because the general populace responds better to a “female” helper than a male or androgynous one.

What is more noteworthy is that these companies chose to reinforce gender stereotypes rather than take a stand and allow the consumer to choose the gender identity of their virtual assistant. Clearly, to them, profit is more important than promoting equality and that is what has to change.

Societal gender roles are based on centuries of passive absorption of the idea that women are the “weaker” sex and can only handle roles as “helpers.” Children, who ever since their childhood has seen their mothers work in the kitchen all day and then present dinner to their fathers at night, have an automatic subconscious bias ingrained in their minds that impacts their decision-making and point of view as leaders and consumers.

It is important to note that Alexa is by default a feminine name and that Amazon doesn’t even offer the option to switch the gender identity of its virtual assistant, believing that consumers wouldn’t ever choose to change the voice of their assistant- why would they if it embodies the perfect, polite woman?*

However, not all companies think that way. Google’s virtual assistant is simply referred to as Google and as you set up your device, you are asked to choose a voice for your assistant. Equally important to note is that Google offers some degree of androgynous voices and that not all companies choose profit over taking a stand, even though it is a small one. 

There is a certain higher moral ground one can claim when they choose to do better and come free from the clenches of discrimination, in all its forms, and corporations should be encouraged to do better, even if it is only to claim that ground and use it as a marketing gimmick. Change starts from modifying the perception of individuals and one way of marching toward that change is encouraging governments and big corporations to work on changing the mindset that women are best placed in the roles of assistants.

*certain parts of the US and UK are now allowed to switch their Echo devices to Ziggy, a non-binary voice