A decade of gender bias in machine translation

Gender bias in machine translation (MT) has been studied for over a decade, a time marked by societal, linguistic, and technological shifts. With the early optimism for a quick solution in mind, we review over 100 studies on the topic and uncover a more complex reality-one that resists a simple technical fix. While we identify key trends and advancements, persistent gaps remain. We argue that there is no simple technical solution to bias. Building on insights from our review, we examine the growing prominence of large language models and discuss the challenges and opportunities they present in the context of gender bias and translation. By doing so, we hope to inspire future work in the field to break with past limitations and to be less focused on a technical fix; more user-centric, multilingual, and multiculturally diverse; more personalized; and better grounded in real-world needs.