[Foundation-l] Editors survey and gender

[Mani Pande]

Hi Amir,
I understand your concern. As a woman, I would not be happy to answer 
questions that are addressed to a man. But it is near impossible to have 
two versions of the survey in Hebrew due to technical reasons. Is it 
possible to rewrite questions with options for both gender? For example, 
he/she.
Thanks
Mani

Mani Pande, PhD
Head of Global Development Research
Wikimedia Foundation
Twitter: manipande
Skype: manipande


On 3/22/11 4:17 AM, Amir E. Aharoni wrote:
> What i say here about Hebrew may be useful for many other languages, too.
>
> I am translating the Editors survey into Hebrew. The survey is written
> as a long series of questions in the second person ("you"). In Hebrew
> the second person is very gender-dependent - the wording is
> significantly different for women. When translating MediaWiki
> messages, we more or less manage to avoid it and though it's not
> perfect and we should use {{GENDER}} more, it's not a disaster. In the
> survey, however, it would be very, very bad with all the personal
> questions about family life etc.
>
> It's not just a matter of being politically correct and welcoming -
> the language simply doesn't natural.
>
> Would it be possible to have the Hebrew translation in the feminine
> gender, too? The default can be masculine, but putting a button at the
> beginning that opens another form in the feminine would be really
> great. In the Meta talk page Casey said that it's not possible with
> LimeSurvey, but i nevertheless want to try asking it again: Can i
> write two versions of the survey, for example "Hebrew-masculine" and
> "Hebrew-feminine" and let the reader switch it? The results can be
> combined later.
>
> Thanks a lot for the understanding.
>
> --
> Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי
> http://aharoni.wordpress.com
> "We're living in pieces,
>   I want to live in peace." - T. Moore
>
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
>