[Gendergap] Proposal: Forking gendergap: Main list for women and transgender, sublist for male supporters

[Amy Roth]

Once at an Ani diFranco concert (that my husband took me to) I saw 
several men wearing a t-shirt that said "This is what a feminist looks 
like." Situations like that have helped me get over my anti-men attitude 
that was a reaction to an early indoctrination of fundamentalist 
teaching that "women must submit to their husbands," and now I believe 
that we as humans need to protect the rights of other individuals. So I 
vote against limiting the conversation to women, because can only arrive 
at the most effective solution through diversity in the dialogue. If the 
ones advocating for women's involvement in Wikipedia are men, then 
rather than silence them, maybe women should speak up too. This list is 
a direct invitation for women to voice the issues they have on Wikipedia 
and many have done that. It seems to me that the men who are active on 
this list join the conversation in an effort to find out what issues 
female editors face and how they can help.

thanks for reading my 2 cents, Amy


On 3/14/11 5:14 PM, Laura Hale wrote:
> I'd like to propose that the gendergap be forked.  The main list would 
> be for women and transgendered who want to work together to help 
> increase female participation on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia 
> Foundation projects.  The fork list would be for male allies who want 
> to work towards a similar goal.
>
> This proposal is based on two things. The first idea is that women 
> themselves can probably best identify areas and needs regarding female 
> participation on Wikipedia. Assuming good faith, male contributors on 
> the list probably do really want to help work towards this goal and 
> have women's best interest at heart and want to see improvement in the 
> total number of female participants on the wiki... but there has been 
> a fairly sizable amount of research in the NGO sector in countries 
> like Africa, where outside organisations were not as effective as 
> local organisations at identifying local problems and creating 
> solutions that work best in a local context.  In this situation, women 
> and transgenders would be the local community and men would be the 
> international NGOs.
>
> The second issue is that at the moment, men appear to be dominating 
> the conversation.  (This may not by correct and I apologise if I am 
> wrong.  I'm making this assumption based on the names of participants 
> involved.)  Men are posting content with suggestions for women.  Men 
> are debating if women find the term dick offensive.  Men aren't asking 
> the women on the list if they have resources that they think other 
> women might find useful.  Men do not appear to be asking the women on 
> the list what their opinions are regarding the use of the term dick 
> and if women on the list find the term offensive.  Rather, it appears 
> that men are speaking for women without their consent.
>
> I'd really like men to continue to be involved.  I think the best way 
> would be for the creation of a sublist, specifically created for men.  
> As allies, they can discuss how to improve the rate of women's 
> involvement.  As men on that strategies sublist about the creation and 
> implementation of solutions to increase female participation, the 
> information can be summarised and sent to some one else off list to be 
> posted to the main list.
>
> I just worry at the moment that the heavy male involvement is 
> intimidating and keeping some women from participating.
>
> Sincerely,
> Laura Hale
>
> -- 
> twitter: purplepopple
> blog: ozziesport.com <http://ozziesport.com>
>
>
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