Hi everyone,
I just wanted to say thank you to kaldari and jeremyb (and possibly kibble?) for helping out with creating the #wikimedia-gendergap room. The response has been so awesome so far, and I've been letting people know about the room via talk pages and word of mouth.
The first 1 1/2 days it was primarily men, and a few women, who liked to declare "Oh look it's mainly men in the gender gap room". It's proceeded to balance out :) Within three days we average 14 people in the room. Not to sound self-centered, but, compared to the conversation of other rooms it's often on topic and a little bit higher brow. Also very positive.
It's been a great place to get to know people from any identifying gender, and it's also allowed me to gain a bit more insight into women's editing habits, activities, hopes and struggles. It's also been cool to see the brainstorming ideas and projects in the works. From learning about how WM-NYC had three new female editors come to their meet up yesterday, to how Raystorm in Spain is planning "girl geek" inspired meetups. I've learned about female Wikimedians who make amazing maps, who have stopped editing because of school and are "Regretting letting Wiki fall to the wayside" to male editors who are having hard times getting their women's history articles as FA for unfair reasons.
Again, thanks to all who helped make it happen, and I look forward to seeing you all visit!
-Sarah #wikimedia-gendergap