Glad you're raising this issue, Rosie, and thinking about a grant-funded
project to address it seems like a smart plan! Testing new ways for making
engagement with DYK a more regular part of any workshops or other times
where women's biographies are being worked on makes sense to me. My 1 and
only DYK was for a woman's bio, but at the time I didn't know anything
about the process (wouldn't have occurred to me it was something that a
noob working on a short article could be part of). If someone else hadn't
nominated, it wouldn't have happened.
On Wed, Jul 16, 2014 at 8:24 PM, Rosiestep Wiki <rosiestep.wiki(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
I've noticed this for years -- fewer women's
biographies vs. men's in an
average week at the DYK section of the main page. Maybe I've noticed this
because I'm a highly prolific contributor to DYK. But I've wondered how
many reader eyeballs land on the main page and notice the same thing?
Some statistics here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Recent_additions
Annually, there's a preponderance of women's biographies in March (Women's
History Month). And during the rest of the year, there's the occasional set
(6-7 "hooks") or occasional day (2-3 sets) where the majority of the
biographies are regarding women. But it's an uncommon occurrence over the
course of a week. The reason seems simple: fewer women's biographies are
being nominated by editors, so fewer are promoted, and fewer appear at DYK.
It almost goes without saying that fewer women's biographies are
created/expanded compared to men's but it's actually important to address
this, as IMO, it's the crux of the problem. I am not suggesting and would
not support setting limits on the number of men's biographies which appear
at DYK. Instead, I'd like to believe that issue/problem recognition is the
first step before we brainstorm some objectives, develop workplans (i.e.
monthly edit-a-thons anyone?), and measure outcomes.
I'm considering creating a proposal and applying for a grant to work on
this "percentage issue". Feedback?
-Rosie
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Rosiestep
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