It seems to me very kind, but not related to the ethymology nor the use of the words (I have not information about Polish). In English you have the male suffix -ian and the female suffix -ienne : comedienne, equestrienne, tragedienne. At the same time you have the suffix -ist for both gender (coming from -ista (Latin) and -istes (old Greek) In Spanish and other langues with differentiaded articles we have: El artista y la artista La wikipedista (female editor) and el wikipedista (male editor). In Spanish and other languages it is sometimes used amig@s for having a gender sensitivity. We could use wikipedist@ , explaining that. best regards, Patricia
________________________________ From: Erik Moeller erik@wikimedia.org To: gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Wednesday, October 5, 2011 8:18 AM Subject: [Gendergap] Wikipedystka
"Wikipedystka", in Polish, describes a female Wikipedian (as opposed to the male "wikipedysta"). As of today, Polish female Wikipedians are no longer called "wikipedysta" if they choose to publicly identify their gender as female.
Here are a few examples: http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedystka:Tanja5 http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedystka:Joanna_Ko%C5%9Bmider http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedystka:AldraW
This is also visible in other places, e.g. recent changes on Polish Wikipedia.
This change is a result of the roll-out of a new version of our software. Other languages, like German, which also have gender-specific terms to describe users, will be upgraded in the coming days.
It's a small thing, but hopefully it'll make gender diversity (and lack thereof) a bit more visible, at least in languages which are more expressive than English. ;-)
Cheers, Erik