[Gendergap] Introduction and some thoughts

[Fred Bauder]

>
> 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

Differential participation is easy to explain. Editors are self-selected
volunteers; aspects of our chapter and other organizational activities
such as boards involve people who are chosen, and hiring is, by both law
and preference, non-discriminatory. In each step as you move from
self-selection to deliberate choice there is more opportunity to select
women and plenty of active qualified people to chose. Equal opportunity
has become ingrained in our culture.

The question remains: Why don't more women edit even those articles that
we know women are interested in? And is there anything we can do to
facilitate more participation?

Fred