[Gendergap] Women's issues noticeboard

[Marc Riddell]

On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 11:24 AM, Andreas Kolbe <jayen466 at yahoo.com> wrote:
Women's views are too often drowned out on talk pages, simply because of
their numerical inferiority. A noticeboard would help.

While I understand the concern about the potential for drama, I think
any method used to make Wikipedia more gender-neutral will attract a share
of drama. Having an institution to look at women's issues is a pretty
mainstream idea.

The UK has a [[Minister for Women and Equalities]] (a poorly researched
article at this time); there is a [[Minister responsible for the Status of
Women (Canada)]]; a [[Minister for the Status of Women (Australia)]]; even
Afghanistan has one: [[Ministry_of_Women's_Affairs_(Afghanistan)]].

Denmark has a [[Minister_for_Gender_Equality_(Denmark)]]; Sweden has a
[[Ministry of Integration and Gender Equality (Sweden)]], etc.

The United States have affirmative action. We should not fear controversy,
or grumbling; our democratically elected governments don't let that stop
them either. If the Wikipedia community cannot support something that is
standard in democratic society, then we do have a problem with our
demographics, and whatever problem we have will become readily apparent.

I wouldn't mind calling it a gender issues noticeboard. (That would be
[[WP:GIN]] as opposed to [[WP:WIN]].)

Andreas
on 2/22/11 2:36 PM, Steven Walling at swalling at wikimedia.org wrote:

Go ahead and do it if you feel passionate about it (of course), but you
asked for people's views, so I'm just saying that you should be prepared for
an awful mess of drama and bickering, some of which is likely to drive out
the very women we're trying to retain. 

I don't want to see anyone leave who can make a positive contribution to the
Project, Steven.  But are we willing to sacrifice the integrity and honesty
of the Project; have it become full of politically-correct pabulum in order
to retain or attract people? A part of what has made the Project vital and
unique has been its refusal to shy-away from controversial issues - both in
its selection and presentation of its articles, and in the collaborative
dialogue that takes place between and among its editors. Yes, the
interpersonal dialogue does need some work, but I know this can be done
without sacrificing its passion and honesty.

Marc 

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