[Gendergap] Hello and specific relevant discussions on En.Wikipedia

[carolmooredc at verizon.net]

Hi. I'm Carolmooredc and since I edit on controversial political topics 
I get in lots of trouble with guys who don't like opinionated females 
who don't shut up and go away when they are told to. I wish it got me 
down enough to leave and do something more profitable, but I'm stubborn 
- and semi-retired with lots of time on my hands.

I'd like to get more educated and retired people involved and think 
there are tens of thousands who could be attracted - if we could deal 
with the bar room brawl aspects of wikipedia as this exaggerated but 
amusing article describes: "Wikipedia: This is a man's world" 
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/wikipedia-this-is-a-mans-world-2206207.html

If the Egyptians can get rid of Mubarak, we can get rid of incivility on 
Wikipedia. (And it is catching; I tend to catch it myself when editing 
on one or two articles where there's lots of it and before you know it, 
I'm bringing (mild versions of) it elsewhere where all is peaceful. But 
at least I'm always willing to apologize and strike my (relatively mild) 
incivil comments.

Anyway, bottom line of why I am posting here is to alert people to at 
least one place where relevant discussions listed (now just haphazardly 
in talk).  Which is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Feminism (I 
don't know if other languages have such projects.)

Perhaps "WikiProjects Women" on all language Wikipedias are necessary to 
draw in women who for various reasons might not go to a "Wikiproject 
Feminism"??

Anyway, an idea of current issues below on en. wikipedia below in case 
anyone wants to jump right in:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Wikipedia#Gender_bias
Needs expanding

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Civility#Proposal
Someone else proposed language to WP:Civility to make slurs vs. 
homosexuals a no -no and I pointed out it wasn't clear that slurs 
against women as women are not sufficiently outlawed in the proposal (or 
now).  And of course people are now saying adding one or two words to 
make both clear is just too much bureaucracy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Categories_for_discussion/Log/2011_February_9#Bias_categories
Proposal to delete in order to to try to have a unified policy because 
some categories allow people/organizations to be categorized who may be 
bigoted and others don't. Because of consensus on the talk page (formed 
by who?) Category:Homophobia doesn't allow it and I have a feeling 
Category:sexism wouldn't  allow some of us to put all the overtly sexist 
(via WP:RS) males and organizations in that category.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Username_policy#Need_more_warnings_on_using_real_names
Do we need stronger warnings to new users (esp women) that using real 
names (or sex) can lead to harassment? Or even a check mark box for them 
to check they've read about that possibility on registering ? 
(Obviously, using my real name, I've had problems!)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_comment/dispute_resolution
Main relevant proposals are relating to easier blocks for bad behavior.  
(Elsewhere dealing with editors who gang up on others, whether from POV 
or just enjoy trashing females, has been discussed so that may yet be a 
related proposal on that page.) I was working on a proposal when the NT 
TImes articles came out and got sidetracked. Anyway, we definitely need 
more female input.

Thanks...

Carol in dc