Glitch appears to give Barclaycard online customer ‘sexist’ error message

A technical glitch on Barclaycard’s website meant that a “sexist” error message was displayed to a user.

Nikki, a Twitter user who was trying to fill out a form on the banking company’s website, found that she was not able to tick “Dr” as her title at the same time as ticking “female” for her gender.

She tweeted: “Hey Barclaycard – it’s 2019! How come I can’t be both female and a doctor?! #EveryDaySexism.”

The message received more than 11,000 likes on the website, however Nikki later clarified that the error was caused by a website glitch.

She then got in touch with Barclaycard, who helped her successfully submit her application form.

Nikki tweeted: “I always thought it was a computer glitch, I never thought they were being deliberately sexist. I just thought it was an amusing technical error that others might appreciate.”

A Barclaycard spokesperson said: “We apologise to Nicola for the technical error she encountered when applying for a credit card. Applicants are usually able to select ‘Dr’ as their title and then enter their gender as either female or male.

“Applicants are able to complete the form successfully when entering their details in a linear manner by selecting ‘Dr’ as their title, entering their name and then selecting female or male as their gender.

“We believe this technical error occurred as a result of the applicant going back and changing her title to ‘Dr’ after entering the other details, and not because of her gender. We are currently investigating what has happened.”