What gender do you write in?

(English only, sorry)


Dale Carpenter at the Volokh Conspiracy points the way to the Gender Genie, a computer test that tries to guess the gender of the author of passages of more than 500 words. He reports that the Volokh conspirators and friends tend to be a pretty male bunch, including Maggie Gallagher!

So I thought I'd give it a try...

Uh oh.

I write in a variety of styles, both for the web and in life. I tried some out and the picture is definitely mixed. Below is the scoring:

The TurkeyBlog is male:
Test 1: Words: 600, Female Score: 665, Male Score: 1358... Male
Test 2: Words: 853, Female Score: 956, Male Score: 1823... Male

Wittgenstein's Bastard is male:
Test 1: Words: 1064, Female Score: 1759, Male Score: 1883... Male
Test 2: Words: 1740, Female Score: 2494, Male Score: 2831... Male

Confessions of a Language Addict is mixed gender:
Test 1: Words: 629, Female Score: 998, Male Score: 872... Female
Test 2: Words: 763, Female Score: 1136, Male Score: 1203... Male

At the office, I'm... female. I scored 1) a note to a senior exec and 2) a note to my boss:
Test 1: Words: 1019, Female Score: 1695, Male Score: 1429... Female
Test 2: Words: 626, Female Score: 915, Male Score: 566... Female

And when I write short fiction, I'm... female again:
Test 1: Words: 618, Female Score: 1102, Male Score: 1078... Female
Test 2: Words: 912, Female Score: 1867, Male Score: 735... Female

What does it all mean? Either I've got some pretty variable communication strategies, computer algorithms aren't all they're cracked up to be, or both.

Find out what gender you are by putting in a writing sample at the Gender Genie.