On Tue, Mar 1, 2011 at 5:51 PM, Daniel and Elizabeth Case <dancase@frontiernet.net> wrote:

In the early days of this list, quite a few participants of both genders expressed the view that "women are turned off by all the fighting and feuding".

I don't doubt the validity of that sentiment, and that it reflects the feelings of some of the women who posted it. And, while of course it isn't just women who are turned off by that, I think it is true that more women than men would just go somewhere else rather than get in the middle of that sort of thing.

But I think we should be careful considering this because it's far too easy to fall into the stereotype of women as too fragile to handle any sort of conflict, and thus requiring exclusion or limitation from any sphere where that might break out. We all know that's not true, or we wouldn't be here.

Do you think it is an issue that people say "women are turned off by all the fighting and feuding" and really mean "women are too fragile"?

I've been struggling with the level of involvement I want at Wikiversity. I'm not exactly fond of it, but people I know academically and professionally are. They love Wikiversity. There is what I feel a subtle amount of pressure to contribute to Wikiversity. I just look at the whole fighting and fueding by the admins over on Wikiversity... and I don't think: I'm too fragile to deal with this. I think: Why the hell should I have to deal with this? Why should I maintain a page like http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/UCNISS/Sport_Wiki_Academy on Wikiversity when I can maintain said page at http://ozziesport.com/sport-academies/ with out the trouble?

This isn't a question of fragility. It is an issue of my time is valuable. My motivations and objectives are clear. Why should I waste my valuable time on Wikipedia or Wikiversity when the politics of it, the fighting and the feuding, don't help me meet my objectives? They distract from my objectives. They eat away at my valuable time. My motivations are more complex than "help create the world's biggest repository of knowledge."

I think fighting and feuding are part of the problem but not in the way that you're implying.