[Gendergap] Gender

[Fred Bauder]

Hi, everyone.

This letter is addressed to the American Philatelic Society, to the
editor of The American Philatelist, and copied to gendergap, a Wikimedia
Foundation mailing list.

I'm doing a little research on behalf of Wikipedia with respect to
gender. You may have noticed the New York Time's article about
involvement of women on Wikipedia,
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/31/business/media/31link.html

Sue Gardner, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation has been
concerned about this issue and we are discussing it, in part on a mailing
list, gendergap at lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap that is open to
public participation.

I've been reading books about stamp collecting lately and in "The Error
World: An Affair with Stamps" by Simon Garfield I found this quotation:

It is a passage quoted from a piece of "light fiction", by Robert Graves
published in 1936, "Antigua, Penny, Puce":

"All English Schoolboys of a certain age collect postage stamps or at
least all schoolboys whose parents have a little money, below a certain
social level the collecting instinct must, we suppose, be satisfied
largely with cigarette pictures and gift coupons. Schoolgirls, on the
other hand...schoolgirls do not go in for stamp collecting, in fact, they
usually despise the pursuit, which is not direct and personal enough to
satisfy them emotionally; if they collect anything it is signed
photographs of famous actresses and actors. But they have brothers, and
brothers collect stamps. So in the holidays they very often consent to
lend a hand in the game. They rummage in bedroom drawers, and in their
parents's writing desks, and in boxes in the attic, and sometimes make
quite useful finds. The brothers are touched and gratified. Schoolgirls
are not interested in stamps, agree, but - this is the important point -
they are interested in their brothers' preoccupation with stamps. What is
it all about? What is the sense of it?"

When I read that I flashed on the insight that Wikipedia is a hobby, and
very similar to stamp collecting at that. I find there is a common
emotional feel about both avocations, but perhaps that is just me.

And I wondered what the statistics are with respect to women
participating in stamp collecting. What percentage of APS members are
women? Of collectors generally? My suspicion is that it is very similar
to the 15% of Wikipedia editors.

Fred Bauder
APS 128302
Wikipedia User:Fred Bauder

BTW, I'm sure the gender gap has been covered in The American Philatelist
before, but I couldn't find a convenient way to search the archives.
Please advise me with respect to that.