[Gendergap] A stereotype we should be careful about ...

[Laura Hale]

On Tue, Mar 1, 2011 at 5:51 PM, Daniel and Elizabeth Case <
dancase at frontiernet.net> wrote:

>  In the early days of this list, quite a few participants of both genders
> expressed the view that "women are turned off by all the fighting and
> feuding".
>
> I don't doubt the validity of that sentiment, and that it reflects the
> feelings of some of the women who posted it. And, while of course it isn't
> just women who are turned off by that, I think it is true that more women
> than men would just go somewhere else rather than get in the middle of that
> sort of thing.
>
> But I think we should be careful considering this because it's far too easy
> to fall into the stereotype of women as too fragile to handle any sort of
> conflict, and thus requiring exclusion or limitation from any sphere where
> that might break out. We all know that's not true, or we wouldn't be here.
>

Do you think it is an issue that people say  "women are turned off by all
the fighting and feuding" and really mean "women are too fragile"?

I've been struggling with the level of involvement I want at Wikiversity.
I'm not exactly fond of it, but people I know academically and
professionally are.  They love Wikiversity.  There is what I feel a subtle
amount of pressure to contribute to Wikiversity.  I just look at the whole
fighting and fueding by the admins over on Wikiversity... and I don't think:
I'm too fragile to deal with this.  I think: Why the hell should I have to
deal with this?   Why should I maintain a page like
http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/UCNISS/Sport_Wiki_Academy on Wikiversity when
I can maintain said page at http://ozziesport.com/sport-academies/ with out
the trouble?

This isn't a question of fragility.  It is an issue of my time is valuable.
My motivations and objectives are clear. Why should I waste my valuable time
on Wikipedia or Wikiversity when the politics of it, the fighting and the
feuding, don't help me meet my objectives?  They distract from my
objectives.  They eat away at my valuable time.  My motivations are more
complex than "help create the world's biggest repository of knowledge."

I think fighting and feuding are part of the problem but not in the way that
you're implying.




-- 
twitter: purplepopple
blog: ozziesport.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/gendergap/attachments/20110301/94e0618c/attachment.htm