More on fem-edits - Gendergap

8 Jul 2011


      Dear Colleagues,
Thank you kindly for taking enough of an interest in this topic to respond; it is enlightening.
My intention is affable, so please keep that in mind.
I understand that many persons will choose to never parent, that some parent for the wrong reasons, and that there are any number of perspectives, and no shortage of opinion and ways to problematize the motherhood issue.  It may bore some; it's a passion for others, such as those of us who experience the direct consequences of parenting.  We are, for better or worse, generating the next population, its biology, genetics, social, political, and cultural values, and productive composition.
I liked the Nielsen link, but I think dads around the world are stressed too, though maybe in different ways.  In terms of U.S. society, for doubters on what is involved, you might consider reading "The Motherhood Penalty," an academic essay, it is science rather than anecdote.  Mothers are perceived as complainers, as less productive than non-parent females, and non-moms earn far more than mothers.  Non-mothers get their pay disparity comeuppance however, when dads come along, and enjoy "the fatherhood bonus."  Dads are perceived as devoted, and highly productive providers.  Mothers are irresponsible coworkers for needing to tend children, but fathers are virtuous for tending children.
In terms of gender disparity and Wikipedia, I mean to empirically focus on 'productivity.'  By this, I mean getting at those meaningful slices of daily, weekly, and lifestyle experience.  As a research methodologist, Question One on a survey instrument might be: "Are you a parent, have you given birth to any children?"  From there, an instrument would take two differing directions.  Non-parents would be sorted and queried for demographic information, and eventually getting to education level and Wikipedia.  Education or literacy is no small component, surely, because the learning curve, and important focus and interest mentioned by list members, will guide, if not determine, a woman's ability to contribute to Wikipedia.  As for blogging, education is not a prerequisite, though some measure of literacy is, and is representative of the many ways that women communicate values.  Gossip is largely a woman's privilege, and it is often, but not always, based on moral and cultural morays.  It's extremely useful, but not in resolving the Wikipedia gender problem.  Creating a well-worded posting for Wikipedia is time consuming, and as one colleague mentioned, kind of geeky.  I'm talking about the productivity that gets measured by economics.
Getting back to the mother-directed survey instrument, one of several age groups would be women of child bearing age, with a possible mean of close to 28 years, and questions would follow that look like: "How old is your infant?" - "Are you nursing?" - "How many minutes does it take to nurse?" - "How often do you nurse?"  - along with prep time, clean up time, bottle chill time, and so on.  A table would indicate that each nursing takes 10-15' on each side, roughly 25 minutes, and if newborn, x8 feedings per day plus management- another 10" per feeding, we are now into about 4 hours per day, and we haven't looked at mothers who must express milk for later use, diaper changes, meals, or playtime yet.  These data at-a-glance may seem (ho-hum and) well beyond the scope of Wikipedia editing and gender biases, but I would argue these data have a role.
To put this another way, non-mothers and non-fathers, might not be the units of focus here (though important in other ways); the parent dimension is likely to be shallow for non-parents (unless taking care of elders, another story for now).  I understand we all function in certain non-gendered emphases, but someone needs to dig in and work at this, because policy is overlooking a number of disturbingly obvious issues.  My view is that Sue G. has a wildly unique, outlying opportunity to shed light, and bring attention to modern (and ancient) underlying issues, largely because of the social potency of Wikipedia in the literate world; Sue's gendered leadership is as significant as any I can think of.
Again, core social science research is in order; this includes a broad, human subjects based investigation with clear hypotheses, and capable minds of all sorts contributing.  Thanks again for taking the trouble to discuss weaknesses in the arguments, and pointing out subjectivity.  These help provide tools for defining the problem(s).
KS Rolph