[Gendergap] Introduction and some thoughts

[Delphine Ménard]

Hi,

My name is Delphine, and I am a woman.

This was for the AA like laconic presentation, everybody says hi now :)

As an introduction, I will say that I recognize myself in Kat's words here:
http://www.mindspillage.org/wiki/Gender_and_feminism in the third
paragraph. I would strongly urge to rename this list to some more
inclusive name. But on the contrary to Kat, I joined. I guess I am
interested in lurking, despite the name of the list.

I started editing Wikipedia in 2004, and at the time sought help on
IRC on the French channels. My nickname "notafish" is gender neutral
enough that people at the time interacted with me in a normal kind of
way, until I wrote something that made it clear that I am a woman (as
an aside, it is much harder in languages that grammatically call for
gendered adjectives to delay the moment when you're going to be tagged
as "woman"). Then things somewhat changed in the way other editors
interacted with me. This said, I never experienced any negative
reactions in Wikipedia (or any Wikimedia project) due to the fact that
I am a woman, so I don't have much to bring to the table on that part.

However, I am extremely interested in the fact that, at least to my
observation, the gender gap is slightly less important in the
organization (Wikimedia) than it might be in the projects. While
real-life informal meet-ups are very much male dominated, it seems to
me that the organisation of events, chapter boards and membership, for
example, are somehow not so male dominated. Or rather, that more women
actually have found their place in those, and are often the lead in
making things happen in real life.

I might be mistaken, and it might be some kind of a "selective
awareness" which makes me see only the women, but I'd be interested in
any kind of study that gives facts about how and why women engage in
other parts of the Wikimedia movement, other than editing the
projects.

Cheers,

Delphine

-- 
@notafish

NB. This gmail address is used for mailing lists. Personal emails will get lost.
Intercultural musings: Ceci n'est pas une endive - http://blog.notanendive.org
Photos with simple eyes: notaphoto - http://photo.notafish.org