[Gendergap] Questions for men

Tue Mar 22 04:05:39 UTC 2011

Laura Hale asks:

> 1.  What women's focused content have you, as a man, improved
> on Wikipedia and other projects since joining this mailing list?

I was trying to abstain from editing to support my appeal to get
un-banned, but when the tsunami hit I couldn't resist.  So I noted a
dead link on [[spindle neuron]] (which is apparently the cell that
causes some mammals to be altruistic and gives them the ability to
recognize themselves in the mirror), made some universal health
care-related edits (universal health care is an issue which
disproportionately involves women) and then tried to help out with
accuracy on the tsunami article.  It took a while before I regained
the will to resist, and I look forward to my continued obedience to
the hegemony in order to someday regain the rights I lost fighting for
the truth of depleted uranium, climate change, instant runoff voting,
the history of nutrition, plug-in hybrids, and cold fusion.  I hope
everyone will be glad to learn that I no longer have any interest in
cold fusion, as I have recently become much more interested in
aneutronic fusion such as boron-11 + proton fusion.  But I'm not so
interested in editing about that until I learn much more; years more,
probably. But on the subject of energy and climate change (which
affects women more than men because floods disproportionately affect
families compared to individual risks) I want to create an article
about http://windfuels.com and I am sad that I can't.

Some of us are prevented from editing or encouraging more women to
edit because circumstances would allow that to be construed as
allegations of meat-puppetry.  But the arbitrator who suggested my
appeal has refused to say whether reasonable people might reasonably
disagree about the extent to which accuracy issues outweigh behavior
issues under conditions where the government is deliberately lying
about toxicity (including reproductive toxicity, which also
disproportionately affects women.)  I have always seen that question
as a civil justice issue, but perhaps civil disobedience is too
WP:IARish for many wikipedians.

> 2.  What offline events specifically have you, as a man, created and
> run specifically run that were marketed at women to help specifically
> increase the participation of women on Wikipedia?

Each time the Girl Scouts have offered me cookies, I have offered them
an extra dollar if they promise to advocate for a merit badge in
online encyclopedia improvement.  So far no troop has refused, and
they have all accepted my post-it note with more information.  I
consider this behavior an important part of my personality, and would
ask for the extra work beyond the box of cookies even if I was with a
date or in a hurry.  Even if it meant decreasing the probability of
future dates.

> 3.  What online events specifically have you, as a man, created and
> run specifically run that were marketed at women to help specifically
> increase the participation of women on Wikipedia?

I've been trying to keep
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposals_for_more_female_editors up
with the ideas on the mailing list, but I'm a few weeks behind.  Can
someone please help go through
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/gendergap/2011-March/ and add
anything I missed?  Sorry, but I've been too busy.

> 4.  As a man, how much time do you spend thinking about the content of
> your posts and how people, who specifically identify as women, will view
> the content they post?  Do you worry about your posts being viewed as
> using gendered language, and insulting to women?

I think of both my online and offline behavior as part of an
integrated whole.  I spend at least 30 minutes a day, and sometimes
much more, thinking about how the people in my life -- who are mostly
women -- will respond to my thoughts, ideas, words, and actions.
Sometimes I am completely wrong in predicting how women will respond
to my proposals.  When I write a post to this mailing list, I
generally review it for how well it seems to make sense in the context
of the problems we are all trying to solve, which probably involves
some language issues that I would consider problematic, but I am in
the minority when it comes to the proper use of some language.

> 5.  What help have you provided to women on this list, when the women
> have expressed concerns?  (Note: Responding to an e-mail does not count.)

I tweeted Jimbo about Wikipe-tan and a few days later he renounced her.

> How many good article situations that people have mentioned have you stepped
> in to help with?  How many articles, categories, policy pages have you, as a
> man, gone to edit because of requests for help on the list?

About ten.

> 6.  What have you, as a man, done to help make women, specifically
> because the contributor is female, become administrators on all WMF
> projects since joining the list?

I've tried to encourage people to list more female role models on
Wikipedia, because I believe that will attract more female
administrators.  I wish some women and/or Foundation officials would
respond to the implications of the four secondary sources listed on
http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Role_models -- but I haven't even been
able to get anyone but Erik Zachte to respond more than a few words to
my concerns about declining administrator ranks.  I just hope that the
extent of inaccuracy and incomprehensiveness remain in a declining
equilibrium with total editor effort before the loss of administrators
destroys accuracy by shortening dispute resolution time.

> 7.  How many times have you, as a man, contacted other men offlist
> because of the other man's onlist behaviour being problematic and
> discriminatory against women, working counter to the goal of helping
> increase women's participation on Wikipedia?

I tried, but both of them have refused to call me.

> 8.  As a man, how many contacts have you provided to women on the list
> to help them accomplish of increasing women's participation on Wikipedia?

I often tell people about http://j.mp/wikidesk which is usually very
helpful, but I'm not sure.  If the links on
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposals_for_more_female_editors
count, then at least a dozen.

> As a man, how much assistance have you provided with web programming?

I am trying to mentor in the Google Summer of Code again this year.
Last year I recruited a guy who worked out well, but was unable to
recruit any women.  This year I'll try recruiting female students.  I
am hoping the projects I suggested this year which are likely to help
women more than men can make use of some code I've already written for
other projects.

> As a man, how much financial assistance you have provided towards women run
> projects to increase women's participation on Wikipedia?

$2 to the Girl Scouts.

> As a man, how much legal assistance have you provided for women trying to run these projects?

Legal?  My appeal is still pending.  The stubbornness I showed while
trying to tell the truth about the reproductive toxicity of depleted
uranium munitions fumes has made me an outlaw in the eyes of many
wikipedians.  However, if I have set a good example by remaining
steadfast in the face of opposition against valid civil disobedience,
then I would hope that counts for something.

Regards,
James Salsman