[Gendergap] Research into causes of the gender gap?

[Ryan Kaldari]

 From the studies and surveys that I've seen lately, the most prominent 
answer seems to be that women see less value in contributing to 
Wikipedia than men do (on average). Of course this raises more questions 
than it answers, but it could help to focus your efforts. For example, 
if you could get Angela Merkel (or other prominent Germans) to create 
Wikipedia accounts and promote that in the media, perhaps it would boost 
the perception of its importance. Another strategy would be to get 
articles about Wikipedia published in media that are targeted to women. 
Sorry that's not more scientific, but I hope it's helpful.

Ryan Kaldari

On 12/14/11 10:31 AM, Johannes Rohr wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> I recently joined this list as I am one of the persons in charge of
> the community-oriented goals which Wikimedia Deutschland has set for
> itself for the coming year, one of which is to increase female
> participation in Wikimedia activities&  projects by 50% until the end
> of 2012, I am well aware that this is a very ambitious target, and I
> feel that in order to maximise the chances of meeting it, we will have
> to be as clear as we can about what are the main deterrents,
> preventing Wikimedia from developing the same way as the rest of the
> Internet in terms of narrowing the Gender gap. What is it that makes
> Wikipedia so different, that the seemingly natural disappearance of
> the gender gap which we have seen in the Blogosphere and in social
> media, seems to completely pass by the Wikiverse?
>
> I have seen a number of quantitative studies, which unambiguously
> confirm the existence of the gender gap as such, but I have seen very
> little on what causes it to be so persistent in the Wikiverse. There
> is a number of commonly proposed explanations such as the discussion
> culture and the poor usability. However I have at least not come
> across any studies which have tested their veracity. If anything of
> that kind exists, I would be extremely happy for a pointer. I would
> also be extremely curious whether any attempts have been undertaken to
> weight the importance of each individual cause. Is there any
> particular factors which can be clearly identified as the one or two
> main showstoppers, which should thus be treated as the top priorities
> or is there a whole array of causes which have more or less equal
> weight?
>
> Looking forward to any feedback,
>
> Johannes
>