I'm glad to hear you're doing this research, and look forward to the results.
Andreas On Tue, Jan 20, 2015 at 5:53 PM, Amanda Menking <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi All, > > These are all really good and complex questions because individual > differences, areas of work within Wikipedia, and personal experiences can > greatly affect why an editor of any gender chooses to stay or go. From my > research thus far, I do, however, think the predominant culture and norms > on EN Wikipedia tend to make it more challenging for editors who are more > “feminine” (e.g., not more female or only women). > > I have done and am continuing to do some work re: these questions. See > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Women_and_Wikipedia/Midpoint. > > Part of the challenge is that interviews (e.g., scheduling, conducting, > transcribing, member checking, coding, analysis) are time intensive, but > the provide much richer and deeper information than surveys. Also, > participants tend to self-select for both. I’ve spoken with only a few > women who don’t like the term “gender gap” and who don’t see a lack of > women participating as a problem in and of itself. Also, I’ve found it > difficult to recruit men to participate. I would love to interview trolls > too, but again—no takers yet. > > I’ll be publishing my final IEG report on April 1. If my participants > grant permission, I’ll share the anonymized, redacted transcripts as well > as the survey results and 9 months of Gendergap mailing list data my > students and I have coded and analyzed. > > An excerpt from a note (currently in press) I’ve written with Ingrid > Erickson (Rutgers) re: early findings: > > Wikipedia, perhaps the most successful large-scale, online > collaboration in the world, is a storied space of democratic values and > meritocracy in action—as many within the CHI and CSCW communities have > extensively detailed [e.g.,13,18,19,22,23,24]. Yet underneath its idealized > veneer, Wikipedia in practice proves to have a notable gender gap. Unlike > user distribution reports on social media platforms, which trend more > toward representative parity or even a greater number of female users [7], > surveys of Wikipedia users indicate the overwhelming majority of > contributors are male [14]. Both the popular media [e.g., 9,21,27] and > scholars [e.g., 1,6,20] have begun to explore Wikipedia’s participation > disparities, raising questions about editor recruitment and retention, > content coverage and bias, and the tension between diversity and > territoriality [10]. > > Recently, Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, admitted that the > Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) has “completely failed” [29] to meet its goal of > increasing the number of female participants to 25% by 2015. In February > 2011 in response to an article published in The New York Times [5], then > Executive Director of WMF, Sue Gardner, asked her Deputy Director Erik > Möller to create the Gendergap mailing list, a publicly archived listserv > “provided by the Wikimedia Foundation as a communication tool to > collectively address the realities of the gender gap” [28]. In September > 2014, a male Wikipedian posted the following message to the list: “I think > there should be a separate site for the gender gap effort […] where women > and men interested in narrowing the gender gap and documenting the existing > problems can exchange views in an atmosphere undisturbed by men pretending > to be women, men opposed to narrowing the gender gap, men arguing that it's > not really proven that the gender gap is a problem.” Even within a > dedicated listserv, the topic of gender parity proves to be volatile. Lam > et al.[20] confirm this social complexity, noting a “culture that may be > resistant to female participation” [20:9]. > > However, Wikipedia’s gender gap is typically framed as a “woman problem” > [8]. It has been attributed to women’s lack of discretionary time [6], > sensitivity to conflict and criticism [6], desire to be more social [21], > and hesitancy to learn technical skills such as the Wiki mark-up language > [11]. In August 2014, Wikimedia Deutschland published a diversity report > indicating that, although the picture is complex, “lack of time, technical > usability barriers (e.g. navigation, editability), and a variety of > sociocultural and communication issues (style of communication, working > atmosphere) can […] definitely be identified as reasons for low female > participation in Wikipedia” [4]. > > > Despite the perception of the gender gap as a “woman problem,” women do > actively contribute to different language Wikipedias across the world. > Women lead local chapters, sustain sister projects, and work for and chair > the WMF. Women who have similar edit counts to men are more likely to > become administrators [21] and make more sizeable revisions [1] than men > do. This note reports early findings that suggest there is something to be > learned about the possible cause(s) and consequences of Wikipedia’s gender > gap by looking more closely at the experiences of women actively engaged in > the community. What are their experiences like? What challenges do they > face? How do they persevere? We posit that many women Wikipedians engage in > a form of ‘emotion work’ [15], also known as emotional labor, that allows > them to maintain their participation even as the circumstances in which > they engage prove challenging, if not caustic. > > > I’m happy to share a link to the entire note once it’s available. I’m > also happy to collaborate with others re: future research. > > Best, > Amanda / Mssemantics > > From: Andreas Kolbe <[email protected]> > Reply-To: "'Addressing gender equity and exploring ways to increase the > participation of women within Wikimedia projects.'" < > [email protected]> > Date: Tuesday, January 20, 2015 at 5:14 AM > To: Wikimedia Mailing List <[email protected]>, > "'Addressing gender equity and exploring ways to increase the participation > of women within Wikimedia projects.'" <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [Gendergap] [Wikimedia-l] surveys of active female editors? > > +1. > > Here are some more questions that I would be interested in having > answers to: > > -- What do women who are presently editing find most demotivating about > contributing to Wikipedia? > > -- Have they ever thought of throwing in the towel, and what were the > reasons? > > -- Based on past experience, what aspect of Wikimedia/Wikipedia culture > would be most likely to cause them to stop editing at some point in the > future? > > -- What change, if any, would they welcome most to feel good about > contributing? > > You'd need a male control group for comparative work, to establish > whether any of the answers are gender-specific. > > Crossposted to gendergap list. (Maybe someone with access to the > research mailing list might like to crosspost this thread there as well.) > > Andreas > > > > On Mon, Jan 19, 2015 at 12:22 AM, LB <[email protected]> wrote: > >> I want to push a "Like" button on this one. How. Why. I would love to know >> the answer to these questions. Also, for those who aren't active - why? >> >> >> Lightbreather >> >> On Sun, Jan 18, 2015 at 12:14 PM, James Salsman <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >> > Are there any surveys of active female editors which have asked how >> > they started editing? >> > >> > _______________________________________________ >> > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: >> > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines >> > [email protected] >> > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, >> > <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: >> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines >> [email protected] >> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/[email protected]> >> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, >> <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> >> > > > _______________________________________________ > Gendergap mailing list > [email protected] > To manage your subscription preferences, including unsubscribing, please > visit: > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap >
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