Sheboard: the new keyboard challenging gendered language

Language is not gender neutral. Explicitly or implicitly, certain adjectives are female, and certain adjectives male.

It’s limiting for both sexes, though girls lose out the most — a recent study found that by the age of six, girls were learning the common stereotype that associates high-level intellectual ability with men more than women. This, in turn, affects girls’ confidence and self-esteem.

Change the game, change the players: Sheboard is a new keyboard that wants us to reflect on the way we talk to and about women.

It looks like a normal mobile keyboard, but the predictive text input has been altered to make empowering word suggestions.

So if you type in “women”, the app suggests words such as “lead”, “smart” and “strong”. Type the phrase “you look so” and it suggests words like “confident” and “smart”. “Beautiful” changes to “happy”.

It also replaces popular phrases. When you type “my little”, the keyboard suggests “adventurer” before “princess”, and if the texter commits to using the phrase, Sheboard offers solutions to make your little princess more empowered, such as “good” and “leader”.

The app is an initiative by the Finnish branch of the humanitarian organisation Plan International, supported by Samsung.

Granted, it’s very contrived. Few of the phrases feel like anything you’d use IRL. But as a thought exercise it’s interesting, and rhymes with broader theories about how we use gendered language.

Moreover, Sheboard also intersects with the current discussion about pronouns: this week it was reported that Oxford University is encouraging students and professors to put their preferred gender pronouns in their email signatures.

Nora Lindstrom, the global coordinator for digital development at Plan, says the point is to remind users of girls’ abilities. “Research has shown that the way we, as a society, talk to girls and boys is different. Girls are more often talked about in relation to their looks and bodies while boys are more often talked about in terms of their strengths and abilities.” Sheboard makes you think about this.

Duly, the target audience is twofold: it’s for those talking to women and girls, but it’s also for girls when they are talking about themselves and their plans and achievements. Many of the words, such as “succeed” and “win” were chosen in partnership with a team of girls and young women.

The keyboard launched at the end of last year for Android, and demand has prompted an iOS version, which is coming soon. Plan hopes the app will help to bridge what it calls the “digital gender gap”.

Though highlighting gender inequalities naturally comes with its own set of risks. Earlier this month Brewdog’s launch of pink “beer for girls” was criticised for being patronising to women and while Plan’s intentions are evidently genuine, you could spin it as condescending and pointless.

Lindstrom argues the keyboard works “subtly” and notes that Sheboard is a “conversation starter,” not a solution. The predictive text function is only an aid — there is no pressure to use suggested words — but the idea is to make users stop and think.

"The impact of language on gender socialisation raises awareness of the issue beyond those who might download the app. Even if someone downloads Sheboard and uses it once or twice, it can still lead to a recognition of the issue itself.”