[Gendergap] Research into causes of the gender gap?

[Johannes Rohr]

Dear all,

I recently joined this list as I am one of the persons in charge of
the community-oriented goals which Wikimedia Deutschland has set for
itself for the coming year, one of which is to increase female
participation in Wikimedia activities & projects by 50% until the end
of 2012, I am well aware that this is a very ambitious target, and I
feel that in order to maximise the chances of meeting it, we will have
to be as clear as we can about what are the main deterrents,
preventing Wikimedia from developing the same way as the rest of the
Internet in terms of narrowing the Gender gap. What is it that makes
Wikipedia so different, that the seemingly natural disappearance of
the gender gap which we have seen in the Blogosphere and in social
media, seems to completely pass by the Wikiverse?

I have seen a number of quantitative studies, which unambiguously
confirm the existence of the gender gap as such, but I have seen very
little on what causes it to be so persistent in the Wikiverse. There
is a number of commonly proposed explanations such as the discussion
culture and the poor usability. However I have at least not come
across any studies which have tested their veracity. If anything of
that kind exists, I would be extremely happy for a pointer. I would
also be extremely curious whether any attempts have been undertaken to
weight the importance of each individual cause. Is there any
particular factors which can be clearly identified as the one or two
main showstoppers, which should thus be treated as the top priorities
or is there a whole array of causes which have more or less equal
weight?

Looking forward to any feedback,

Johannes

-- 
Johannes Rohr

Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.
Eisenacher Straße 2
10777 Berlin

Tel.: +49 30 219158260
http://wikimedia.de

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