The attainability and repercussions of making gendered and genderless robots

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2023-01-27
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en
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When robots are becoming increasingly important in society, it’s important to investigate each design choice we make about them intensively. And since gender plays such a large role in human society, this is certainly an aspect of a robot’s design that we can’t disregard. However, it appears that the gender of some social agents is already being chosen based on gender stereotypes. This thesis investigates the issues in both human and robot gender with the help of Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex, as well as recent literature on how robots of different genders are perceived. Additionally, it discusses the feasibility of genderless robots, concluding that due to many factors, it may be very challenging to make a robot that is perceived as genderless. Finally, it proposes some ways of designing robot gender in a way that is less harmful and that could potentially lead to progress in society’s perception of gender.
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Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen