Hey folks!
When Asaf of the Israeli chapter started up the Wikipedia in Developing Countries list, he did something that I thought was really great: he asked everybody who joined to introduce themselves, and talk a little about why they were interested in the list topic. Why don't we do the same thing here?
I can start:
I'm Sue Gardner; I'm the executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit organization that operates Wikipedia.
I'm interested in the Wikipedia gender gap for two reasons: 1) I'm a woman, and I am sometimes surprised/irritated/appalled at how thin Wikipedia is on some topics that interest me. I want Wikipedia to be as rich and complete and broad and deep as it possibly can be, so that I find what I'm looking for when I read it. And 2) I'm the ED of the Wikimedia Foundation, and our mission is to make the sum total of all human knowledge available to everyone. I know that Wikipedia is only going to be as good as the breadth & diversity of the people who contribute to it, so ensuring that women are fully represented on Wikipedia is, I think, a part of my job.
A little more background on me personally: I know that a lot of women on Wikipedia operate in predominantly male environments such as science, technology, engineering and math. That's not my situation. I spent most of my career at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which is an extremely female-friendly environment with lots of women throughout the organization at every level, and I also worked at the Women's Television Network, which had at the time a 98% female staff. So I am very used to operating in female-majority cultures. This means that when I first joined Wikimedia in 2007, it was a pretty big culture shock to me.
But I'll also say that I've never personally witnessed misogyny on the Wikimedia projects, and I don't believe that Wikimedia editors, by and large, are sexist. (I know that some people would disagree with that.) I think our gender gap has its origins mainly in the external environment, and the contributing factors are many of the same ones that result in women being underrepresented in the STEM fields. Plus I don't think the Wikimedia movement has yet done a sufficiently good job of stressing the societal benefits of our work (which I think would be appealing for lots of women): rather, we've let our work be defined by others as solely technical and 'geeky.' Plus, women don't typically have as much leisure time as men for pursuits like Wikipedia, and the time they do have tends to be spent in groups rather than at a computer. I say all that only because I think lots of women would edit Wikipedia if they had a clearer understanding of what it is, and why it exists.
I should also say: I think that all forms of diversity --geographic, political, ideological, cultural, sexual, age-related, etc.-- are important. But having said that, I do think our gender skew is particularly bad, so even though I feel uncomfortable paying special attention to it, I believe it's probably defensible.
My hope for this list is that it'll become a space where Wikipedians and non-Wikipedians can share research and information and tactics for making Wikipedia more attractive to women editors. Myself, I'm not particularly interested in debates about 'how bad the problem is' or 'is there really a problem' or 'whose fault is this problem anyway.' I'm actually not all that interested in the origins of the gender gap, except insofar as they shed light on possible solutions.
Following the story in the Times today, I got lots of e-mails from people who want to help us fix things. I'm not going to forward the mails here without people's permission, but I will probably reach out to many of those folks and invite them to join this list.
Oh: and a little background. Erik Moeller, my deputy, created this list today because I asked him to, and after floating the notion on the internal-l mailing list, it looked like there might be sufficient interest to make it worthwhile. My understanding is that this is NOT a women-only list; it's a list for people who are interested in the gender gap on Wikipedia, who want to help attract/support more female editors.
Thanks, Sue
-- Sue Gardner Executive Director Wikimedia Foundation
415 839 6885 office 415 816 9967 cell
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
And, I'll note that this list is publicly archived and open to subscription by anyone, like most Wikimedia mailing lists. The archives are at:
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/gendergap/
We can decide to change the settings, of course, but that's how it's currently set up.
Hi everyone,
Great words Sue. The New York Times article really rippled throughout the web, and I know many of us (male or female Wikipedians) hoped to see some things take place because of it. I have always followed the gender gap issues with Wikipedia since my involvement, and always been aware of my minority status, so it's great to see this getting more press than a menial case study every year.
I'm Sarah Stierch, a Wikipedian since 2006 (by way of Username:Missvain) and one of the project leaders of Wikipedia:Public Art (once known as Wikipedia Saves Public Art). I am lucky to be involved in a creative project that is headed by myself, Jennifer Geigel-Mikulay and Lori Byrd-Phillips, two inspiring women who have done nothing but support my efforts, struggles and successes. We do have one boy in the mix - Richard McCoy. Both Richard and Jennifer serve as advisers for Lori and myself, in career and educational matters. We're really lucky!
I have always been involved in arenas that are rather gender bias. I've been a DJ for over 10 years, played drums and sang in bands, booked rock concerts, sold fine art, and always considered myself a tomboy. I've been dealing with gender conflicts and attempting to fight the idea of being even lumped into one or the other for many years. I don't intend on going into some crazed feminist rant - but, I have my own opinions and feel passionate about getting more involved in sharing information and culture - and if more women would like to participate, that would be grand.
I'm specifically interested in bringing elder women (our moms, grandmas, teachers, professors, etc) and our younger women (sisters, daughters, students) into Wikipedia.
Most of my work revolves around public art in Wikipedia. I have a desire to promote reclamation and ownership of public art by "the people."
I live in Washington, D.C. I am obtaining my Masters in Museum Studies (A very female dominated educational community, and a world that seems to move like molasses in regards to Wikipedia) at George Washington University. I obtained my undergrad from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis in Native American studies and a minor in Museum Studies.
I recently gave a very chaotic talk about WIkipedia: Public Art at WikiXDC at the National Archives. I write an article in a popular online local newspaper called "The Peoples Art" about the public art I write about in DC on Wikipedia. Overall, my thesis work will revolve hopefully around public art ownership via Wikipedia.
Alright, I've babbled enough. It's an honor to be apart of this, and I really look forward to seeing what our revolution will bring about.
Sarah (Who's already brainstorming ideas for the Women in Wikipedia Cocktail Hour in Haifa!!!)
I'm Fred Bauder and have edited the English Wikipedia for many years. I'm interested in any change we can make in policy or culture which would facilitate editing by women (and anyone else).
I have a few ideas, one of which I will share here. When I read an authoritative work, or have good information from a reliable source, I add that to Wikipedia. Rather than the other way around, putting in information then looking for a source. Things seem to go very smooth when I work from a reference to added information rather than adding information then looking for a source.
My thought is that simple tricks like that make editing much easier, enjoyable, and conflict free. Sharing that information with new editors seems to be a way to facilitate editing. I guess what I'm saying is that a little simple information about getting started might be helpful.
Fred Bauder