Hello all,
I've been on the gender gap mailing list for a number of months now but have
yet to introduce myself. While I tend to default to Wikipedia often when I
want quick information on something, I never considered the possibility of
editing until reading about the gender gap issue. It was at this point I
came across the African American Woman Suffrage Movement article and tried
to clean it up a bit. While rewarding, I didn't have the sources to try and
expand on it but I hope to do so in the future.
While to some extent I subscribe to the idea that there are many women out
there who fall into the category of "not having the free time", I fall into
a much different category that was discussed a few months back (and which I
only read yesterday - I tend to let the digests pile up and read them all at
once!!): Women that are technically savvy and do have some free time. At
times I am an avid blogger and the Wikipedia technology is easy and fun for
me to learn as I go. I often have a number of things I need to or want to do
with my time and prioritize accordingly. Wikipedia is low in that list of
priorities.
I have a hard time articulating why that is. To some degree it is both
function and attitude. After editing the Suffrage Movement article, I found
myself wanting to continue contributing. Yet the time I allotted to
Wikipedia really only allowed me to do things such as suggesting new
articles or categorizing their class/importance for something like the
Women's History project. As Sydney (I believe) mentioned a few emails back
about cleaning up the commons, it felt like such an endless, tedious task
and eventually I lost interest altogether.
As for attitude, I don't mean to insult when I say this, merely to explain.
When I was in graduate school I was frustrated with the idea that I should
be editing Wikipedia - here is a site that seems "a joke" in academic
circles (the ever so common "Wikipedia is NOT a source!!" from professors,
exasperated that we should know better), I am steeped in information that
actually "matters" every day, why in the heck am I going to bother with
Wikipedia?! Given the sheer amount of use Wikipedia gets not only in
general, but from me as well illustrates how much it truly matters and why
it's all the more important to make sure information is portrayed in an
accurate manner. In addition, the greater interest academics are actually
taking in Wikipedia proves me wrong as well.
LASTLY, in terms of having a more diverse representation of female bodies -
one might look up pictures of the World Naked Bike Ride. It was fascinating
to me to see all different shapes and sizes, as bodies in the US media are
often airbrushed paragons of "perfection." I don't know anything about
rights to photos and such though I have a (male) friend who participates
every year and is quite open with the pictures he appears in. If permission
is necessary, perhaps the women who have participated would be quite happy
to oblige.
I am going to Urubamba, Peru at the end of the month for 3 months and I see
that the article could use some work. I look forward to improving it!! I
appreciate the care that those of you on this list put into trying to remedy
the gender gap, as well as examining whether topics on Wikipedia are being
skewed to reflect a patriarchal bias.
Erin (User Gwytherinn)
--
Erin O'Rourke
http://erin-orourke.com