The following post from the Foundation list may explain why gender identification is so much higher in Russian Wikipedia than it is in other projects.
Andreas
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On Mon, 14 Feb 2011 00:32:34 -0500, Ryan Lomonaco wiki.ral315@gmail.com wrote:
Rather than implementing MediaWiki code that could be controversial, there's probably an easier solution that requires no code:
- Add a pseudo-namespace (such as the WP: prefix on Wikipedia, WN: on
Wikinews, etc.) that forwards from Benutzerin to Benutzer (and the
relevant
User talk namespaces). This would mean that either Benutzer or
Benutzerin
would successfully link to one's user pages.
My understanding is that this is how it has been realized in Russian Wikipedia for years already: we have for some female users Участница:X rather than Участник:Х (default). It seems to work, and nobody ever complained.
Cheers Yaroslav