The Gender Bias Behind Voice Assistants

A typical after-work scene at my house goes something like this. She chimes, then lights up. My husband says the persistent disconnect between me and Alexa is my fault--I need to pause more, speak more clearly, and maybe throw in a "please" now and then. But not long after she moved in--a necessary sidekick, I was told, to the new sound system he had installed--I started getting the feeling she preferred Bob over me, no matter how polite I was (although often I wasn't). Once she started piping up every time someone in the house called my name ("Alyssa!"),