Perusing Hacker Factor I found this notable device, a Gender Guesser programme for (yes) guessing the gender of a writer from 300 or so words of prose.
Worth a try.
So I cut and pasted this passage from a recent blog entry of mine:
The strength of the Iranian protest movement lies in its diffused, domestic and almost spontaneous mass nature. But that can be a weakness too – to bring down a system like Iran’s will require deadly focused force aimed at the heart of the regime, and probably a lot of ruthless killing along the way.
One way Western powers can help is to try to drive wedges into the system. To try to identify moderate or wavering fanatics within the ruling elite, and urge them privately that the game is up – and that they should hold back as and when the final crisis comes. Nothing like an obviously authentic secret personal message from the top of a Western intelligence agency to concentrate the mind.
More publicly we might want to think about setting up websites populated by lists and pictures of the worst people in the Iranian regime whom we would expect the Iranian people to want to put on trial for crimes against humanity, as and when the regime falls. Once people are on an open list that warns that the long arm of Justice will eventually nab them, who knows what they might do to get off it?
And when in doubt, push stories that the regime’s top people are getting ready to run away. Those around them are likely to believe them and get cross at the idea of being left behind to face the music. Remember all the rumours that Milosevic was poised to flee to Kazakhstan?
The trouble with countries as corrupted as Iran is that far too many people are implicated in misdeeds. Which means that it may suit the mass of pirates running the ship to throw a couple of leaders overboard as if in a great popular convulsion and go below decks for a while, to bide their time when they can sneak back into power or at least strong places of influence under a new fairer dispensation…
The result? Wow!
Genre: Informal
Female = 246
Male = 708
Difference = 462; 74.21%
Verdict: MALEGenre: Formal
Female = 248
Male = 668
Difference = 420; 72.92%
Verdict: MALE
So then I thought I’d better throw into the pot some prose from a Typical Woman by way of cross-checking. How about Jane Austen?
Mr. Bingley was good looking and gentlemanlike; he had a pleasant countenance, and easy, unaffected manners. His brother-in-law, Mr. Hurst, merely looked the gentleman; but his friend Mr. Darcy soon drew the attention of the room by his fine, tall person, handsome features, noble mien; and the report which was in general circulation within five minutes after his entrance, of his having ten thousand a year. The gentlemen pronounced him to be a fine figure of a man, the ladies declared he was much handsomer than Mr. Bingley, and he was looked at with great admiration for about half the evening, till his manners gave a disgust which turned the tide of his popularity; for he was discovered to be proud, to be above his company, and above being pleased; and not all his large estate in Derbyshire could then save him from having a most forbidding, disagreeable countenance, and being unworthy to be compared with his friend.
Mr. Bingley had soon made himself acquainted with all the principal people in the room; he was lively and unreserved, danced every dance, was angry that the ball closed so early, and talked of giving one himself at Netherfield. Such amiable qualities must speak for themselves. What a contrast between him and his friend! Mr. Darcy danced only once with Mrs. Hurst and once with Miss Bingley, declined being introduced to any other lady, and spent the rest of the evening in walking about the room, speaking occasionally to one of his own party. His character was decided. He was the proudest, most disagreeable man in the world, and every body hoped that he would never come there again. Amongst the most violent against him was Mrs. Bennet, whose dislike of his general behaviour was sharpened into particular resentment by his having slighted one of her daughters
Genre: Informal
Female = 399
Male = 380
Difference = -19; 48.78%
Verdict: Weak FEMALEWeak emphasis could indicate European.
Genre: Formal
Female = 427
Male = 228
Difference = -199; 34.8%
Verdict: FEMALE
It works!
But just one more check … how about Polly Toynbee?
Public jobs are tough. Running a local authority, or a beacon comprehensive or teaching hospital in a hard-pressed borough, takes more managerial talent than running any company. Selling food or cars has just one target – the bottom line. Compare that with a public manager’s multiple goals. A happy and well-educated child or a recovered hip-fracture patient returned safely to their home require skills no investment banker has. That is why it’s one-way traffic: no one asks retail managers to run schools, hospitals or councils. They might find the responsibility for other people’s lives hair-raising – and the pay would be too low. However, public servants jeopardise the respect they deserve once they, too, want their worth weighed in gold.
That is why, as Compass proposes, we need a high pay commission covering both sectors. To be fair to the public administration committee’s excellent report, it was beyond their remit to include the private sector. As committee chair Tony Wright points out, their proposed commission would track private sector comparators and report on general pay trends: "There is no doubt that private pay drags the public sector along in its wake
Result? Eeek!
Genre: Informal
Female = 222
Male = 295
Difference = 73; 57.05%
Verdict: Weak MALEWeak emphasis could indicate European
Genre: Formal
Female = 107
Male = 245
Difference = 138; 69.6%
Verdict: MALE
Is this what happens to women when they work for the Guardian and BBC for too long?
Share this page:
