I hadn't thought of editing before until I saw an awful article on myself and on a group I was involved with, so I did start as activist promoting a cause in my first couple articles for the first year or so til I started to understand how wikipedia works.
Another woman wrote on the facebook page a relevant comment: "So (another chicken-and-egg problem) one way to get more women to participate is to increase coverage of topics women are more likely to feel they can contribute to. Whatever those are... :-)"
So increasing number of articles women in general might like helps.
Also, get people in the habit by just encouraging minor edits to start, even just grammar or spelling or wikilinks. Frequently when I watch a movie I search for background in the Wikipedia article. Sometimes I make minor corrections. I'm sure others use it for similar purposes.
Maybe appeal to the "straighten this mess out" motivation many women feel (in fact that's how I describe part of my motivation on my user page). Little habits can become big ones.
Maybe a banner every couple hours (or during high traffic times) that say something like: "Hello, visitor! See a spelling or grammar mistake in an article? Feel free to jump in and correct it. Making editing wikipedia a habit!" Or something snappier. And a certain percentage of those will be women who otherwise would not think of editing.
CM
On 3/7/2011 11:56 PM, Collective Action wrote:
...
I think for people who are new to Wikipedia and decide to edit due to an issue they feel strongly about, their fervour may be a double-edged sword. These people my be at most risk of their experience not living up to their hopes in that their strong opinion might imply that there are other people with equally strong opinions on the same topic on Wikipedia and facing this while also learning the syntax and everything else can result in them feeling overwhelmed.
The most common comment to me though is that women have just not thought to do it before. These women don't cite any concerns about Wikipedia- one has to be informed about Wikipedia to have heard of the reputation for conflict that has been doing the media rounds. With a bit of help and support through learning the ropes, many women I talk to on Twitter don't have a problem with the idea of editing Wikipedia and of course some have alredy done so.
Just thought I'd add my feedback to the topic.
Rosie http://women4wikipedia.net
Message: 3 Date: Mon, 07 Mar 2011 20:15:28 -0500 From: carolmooredc@verizon.net Subject: [Gendergap] What motivates women to edit??