Extra posting : how did wikipedia tried to improve the number of women editors ?

Theoretically, women represent half of the human population, we also know that more than 90% of wikipedia editors are male. What image does wikipedia show of an encyclopedia in which mostly males contributed ? This cannot be called an universal encyclopedia.

Let’s first take a look at the reasons why this gender gap exist, here is some of the most common answers. The website is not user friendly, women feel intimidated by the tones of discussions (conflict averse), they lack self confidence in editing (they see faillures when someone edit their articles) and finally they feel the website is mysogynistic.

How did wikipedia counterattack these established or perceived barriers ?
Arts + feminism is a non profit organization that organizes female focused edit-a-thons, a marathon of female focused editing. These kind of initiatives has made wikipedia more women friendly  environment by increasing the list of female authors, making it longer than female porn stars list. Editing in group can also be perceived as less intimidating.
Main counter attack it seems to be organizing groups to teach wikipedian editing and make women realize they can contribute, fight in their own way, and right the wrong simply by using wikipedia.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

W3. Why do you think people use Wikipedia? Why do others write for it? - Sun bo Sim

W6. How important is it to be civil online on the Internet?-Ji Young An

W5. Can we trust Wikipedia? Yun-Jin Kim