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Evaluation of Gender Bias in Amharic Word Embedding Model

Yalemisew, Abgaz orcid logoORCID: 0000-0002-3887-5342, Zenebe, Beimnet and Gizaw, Solomon (2024) Evaluation of Gender Bias in Amharic Word Embedding Model. In: The 29th International Conference on Natural Language & Information Systems, 25-JUN-24 27-JUN-24, Turin, Italy.

Abstract
Bias in natural language processing systems can perpetuate and exacerbate societal inequalities, reflecting and potentially amplifying existing biases in human language and culture. Amharic, as the official language of Ethiopia, holds cultural and linguistic significance, making it imperative to assess potential biases within its computational representations. This research paper investigates the presence and extent of gender bias in Amharic text corpora. The research utilizes gendered word pairs to capture gender representation in the word embeddings and quantifies the degrees of gender bias present in profession words. We found that profession words carried stereotypical implicit biases with most occupations leaning towards male. Profession words like “nurse” and “house-maid” align with societal gender dynamics, displaying significant female associations. Additionally, professions in the arts and athleticism demonstrate a robust female-leaning bias, while physically demanding and educated professional roles tend to exhibit male-leaning biases. The study contributes insights into the gender dynamics encoded within the Amharic language informing strategies to reduce bias and fostering fair and unbiased representations for improved societal and technological outcomes.
Metadata
Item Type:Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Event Type:Conference
Refereed:Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords:Gender Bias, Natural Language Processing, Word Embeddings, Bias Measurement, Amharic Corpus
Subjects:Social Sciences > Ethnicity
Social Sciences > Gender
DCU Faculties and Centres:DCU Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Engineering and Computing > School of Computing
Published in: NLDB 2024 : The 29th International Conference on Natural Language & Information Systems. .
Official URL:https://nldb2024.di.unito.it/
ID Code:30389
Deposited On:21 Oct 2024 13:08 by Vidatum Academic . Last Modified 21 Oct 2024 13:22
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