Jennifer Krebsbach receives Distinguished Graduate Student Paper Award
Jennifer Krebsbach has received the Distinguished Graduate Student Paper Award of the Pacific Sociological Association for her paper titled, “Firewomen ‘Promote a Culture of Safety,’ but Firemen ‘Face Hazardous and Unpredictable Situations’: Gendered Job Description Narrative Outputs by Large Language Models.”
A description of the research and praises from the nomination letter:
"This groundbreaking research contributes significantly to gender studies, technology, and the reproduction of gender inequality in labor markets. Krebsbach’s study provides an in-depth analysis of how large language models (LLMs) including ChatGPT 4.0-mini, ChatGPT 3.5 Turbo, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Llama 3.2 3b, Jamba-1.5 Large, and Jurassic 2 Ultra, generate gendered job descriptions based on gender-coded and gender-neutral job titles. By examining 576 AI-generated narratives, her research reveals how algorithmic bias can reinforce occupational gender stereotypes. Her research highlights a new dimension of discrimination embedded not in explicit human bias, but in the seemingly neutral automation of hiring processes. This work builds on foundational literature in gender studies, organizational sociology, and computational social science, offering novel insights into how subtle language differences shape workplace dynamics and hiring practices. This insight has profound implications for the sociology of work, technological governance, and policies mitigating workplace inequality. "
Congratulations, Jenn!