On 11/21/06, Fastfission fastfission@gmail.com wrote:
I think it is probably very likely that most of Wikipedia's editing is done by males, and I find it inconceivable that this wouldn't effect a slant in the editing. That being said, I am not sure I know where the "problem" lies, if we decide that it is a problem, and I am not sure there is any sort of easy fix. I suspect that editing regularly on Wikipedia caters primarily to activities which are often branded as "masculine" in U.S. culture (aggressiveness, boldness, assertiveness, argumentitiveness), and that would be something without an easy fix (and its possible that any fixes would go directly against the unplanned, unmanaged wiki spirit). But I don't know.
I think female editors have a tendency to be demonized more readily than men if they assert themselves. A certain attack site is very keen on attacking women admins, and while that's partly to do with the personalities of the people who post there, I think there may also be a strain of sexism in it -- women admins getting above themselves, being viewed as aggressive rather than assertive. But I haven't noticed any serious bias in terms of editing.
Sarah