However, I am extremely interested in the fact that, at least to my observation, the gender gap is slightly less important in the organization (Wikimedia) than it might be in the projects. While real-life informal meet-ups are very much male dominated, it seems to me that the organisation of events, chapter boards and membership, for example, are somehow not so male dominated. Or rather, that more women actually have found their place in those, and are often the lead in making things happen in real life.
I might be mistaken, and it might be some kind of a "selective awareness" which makes me see only the women, but I'd be interested in any kind of study that gives facts about how and why women engage in other parts of the Wikimedia movement, other than editing the projects.
Cheers,
Delphine
-- @notafish
Differential participation is easy to explain. Editors are self-selected volunteers; aspects of our chapter and other organizational activities such as boards involve people who are chosen, and hiring is, by both law and preference, non-discriminatory. In each step as you move from self-selection to deliberate choice there is more opportunity to select women and plenty of active qualified people to chose. Equal opportunity has become ingrained in our culture.
The question remains: Why don't more women edit even those articles that we know women are interested in? And is there anything we can do to facilitate more participation?
Fred