Although books have the most counter-gendering, the overall percentage of gendered language is low in this category as well. 87.2 percent of the additional entries examined did not use inclusive language at all.
With only one exception, paired forms were used to increase inclusivity in all descriptions with opposite gender. This includes formulations that explicitly mention both the male and female designations, such as "teachers" or similar. The exception comes from the book section and relies instead on colons for illustration. The only use of a gender-neutral term ("teachers") could also be found in the info text of a book, where the pair form is additionally used at the same time.
One of the main reasons for not using gender-appropriate language is the algorithm used by Amazon. When prospective customers search for certain keywords, it is crucial for sellers to appear as high up in the list of search results as possible. Using inclusive terms can cause products to slide further down the ranking in some circumstances.
Stefan Gutheil, founder of ICONIC SALES and Amazon expert, assesses the results: "It is of course in the "nature" of some products that they are only aimed at very specific target groups. Particularly in the beauty category, there are goods that are only intended to be marketed to women from the outset, which is why many providers refrain from inclusion in such cases. In addition, many product descriptions simply do not contain any terms that could be gendered. However, even in the few cases where gender wording would be possible, most providers miss the opportunity to improve connectivity and reduce barriers. This is due not only to the keywords, which are also rarely given gender forms in user searches, but also to the costs incurred by product descriptions. The longer, the more expensive. Product descriptions therefore remain less inclusive as long as retailers have to record monetary losses due to gendering.