Re: [Gendergap] inspired me

I have read this list with great care. I am a senior faculty member in what used to be a library school but is now an iSchool. Most of our new hires have been men who try very hard to pretend that the librarian legacy is disappearing. In my classes (one is the History of Libraries) my students are 60% female. All of my assignments are to edit and contribute to Wikipedia from the scholarship students uncover in archives and local histories. 35 years ago I chaired the American Library Association Committee on the Status of Women in Librarianship--baffled that a field of women was dominated by men. It was a long effort to isolate factors that resulted in status differential but the factors were 1)publishing; 2) professional involvement; 3) willingness to relocate. So, the issue of women's opportunity for full participation continues. I will do my best to encourage women to be involved in Wikipedia and thus help to broaden the perspective. Reading this list has been very inspirational. In the past ten years my efforts to edit in Wikipedia were very discouraging in spite of a doctoral degree in my subject field. I know there were many nameless boys delighting in destruction. I have completely given up trying to post images as the image watchers delight in making this near to impossible even if one is trying to upload one's own pictures. The cover of a journal I edit, that is in the commons that I had full editorial board approval to upload has never been allowed. But a boy in pajamas beat me every time . This group has shown that that is so and must be fought--before I encountered this group I was more and more discouraged. Don't back down. Kathleen de la Peña McCook, Librarian ============ On Fri, Jan 25, 2013 at 3:47 AM, Sarah Stierch <sarah.stierch(a)gmail.com>wrote;wrote: _______________________________________________ Gendergap mailing list Gendergap(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap