Hi Rosie!
On 18 February 2011 10:38, Collective Action collective_action@hotmail.com wrote:
Having asked the original question on this thread I thought I might chime in with my thoughts to the responses. When I posted it I imagined I'd get responses from women rather than men so it was interesting that the initial responses came from men and then a discussion ensued about the merits/disbenefits of the idea of Wikipedia dominated by women as it is presently dominated (statistically) by men.
Yeah. Personally I appreciate that men are here, and caring about this issue. I do think though that sometimes it would be more helpful if some of the men here listened a little more and spoke a little less. Women are likelier to be more 'expert' on the gender gap issue and its origins than men are, so a man might usefully aim to learn here when experiences are being shared, rather than teach.
There have I think been a couple of examples here of a woman saying something about her experience, followed by a man seeming to refute/rebut/deny what she said, or tell her she should feel differently about it. That's a normal thing to do --it happens all the time-- but it's not very helpful. If someone is sharing her experience, there's really nothing to debate: it's her experience.
I am currently hosting weekly Twitter chats at http://wthastag.com/Women4wikipedia starting 9am UTC/GMT Monday or 8pm Australian Time (Sydney). Readings & transcripts are at http://women4wikipedia.net
Thank you for starting those chats, and thank you for the site as well (http://women4wikipedia.net/). I am really thrilled to see people starting their own initiatives to help solve this problem, and I appreciate what you're doing :-)
Thanks, Sue
-- Sue Gardner Executive Director Wikimedia Foundation
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Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!