From the studies and surveys that I've seen lately, the most prominent answer seems to be that women see less value in contributing to Wikipedia than men do (on average). Of course this raises more questions than it answers, but it could help to focus your efforts. For example, if you could get Angela Merkel (or other prominent Germans) to create Wikipedia accounts and promote that in the media, perhaps it would boost the perception of its importance. Another strategy would be to get articles about Wikipedia published in media that are targeted to women. Sorry that's not more scientific, but I hope it's helpful.
Ryan Kaldari
On 12/14/11 10:31 AM, Johannes Rohr wrote:
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