Gender gap

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...and while you're at it, don't forget to mind the gap!

There is a gender gap in Wikipedia and the other projects in the Wikimedia Movement. This page exists to help store information and ideas and to catalog projects that are trying to close that gap.

Are you from the press or media? Are you writing a story about the gender gap or gender issues on Wikipedia and sister projects? Contact press(at)wikimedia.org to connect with community members who are subject matter specialists.

Introduction[edit]

The Art & Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon in Chicago on February 1, 2014. Part of the purpose of the edit-a-thon was to address the gender gap.

The Wikimedia community was aware of the gender gap from its earliest days, but the first large-scale study that tried to quantify it was a survey conducted by the United Nations University and published in March 2010.[1]

This page seeks to act as a hub for resources and information about Wikimedia's gender gap, and to adequately quantify the gender gap, in particular by presenting studies on the subject and by collecting anecdotal evidence about why women leave or never join Wikipedia.

Read[edit]

For more English-language articles, see Gender gap task force/Media

A selection of articles about the gender gap:

Research articles:

A brief survey of existing research findings is in-progress at Research:Gender gap. You can help improve it!

Watch[edit]

Research[edit]

The initial research that increased attention on this issue was from a UNU survey, the results of which can be viewed and downloaded at wikipediasurvey.org[dead link] (archive). However, like all surveys where who responds is self-selected, it was biased towards certain types of demographics, and it gives us only a rough working idea of how big the gender gap is.

While we discuss practical projects for inviting women to edit (see the section below), we should think about how measuring the gender gap accurately can be done. We should also collect some anecdotal stories about why women leave Wikipedia or never join to begin with, as a way of showing people what the gender gap feels like on a more personal level.

Discuss[edit]

The gender gap mailing list is the best place to talk about this with other people who are interested and can help. Started on January 31st, 2011, it has a mix of longtime Wikimedians and people from other fields who arrived through their interest in the subject, so it's helpful to introduce yourself in your first post.

Since this is a sensitive topic, the mailing list has a simple code of conduct. The gist is, be considerate and constructive. That means:

  • No personal attacks.
  • Try to stay on topic and take other things off-list.
  • Try to turn fighting into constructive discussion, or disengage/take it off-list.
  • Help guide discussion toward concrete action.
  • Be aware that using an aggressive or argumentative tone (or even just posting too much) can discourage people from participating.

The Gender Gap Task Force (GGTF) on the English Wikipedia was set up in 2013 to discuss issues that might be making the gender gap worse there, and to offer a space where people can ask for help with articles.

Participate[edit]

You don't have to join the mailing list or read the recent press to help correct the gender gap. You don't need to have edited before either! If you're interested, the following projects need the help of women and men alike to be successful, so don't be shy about joining in.

Resources within Wikimedia communities[edit]

Projects within Wikimedia communities[edit]

Related projects in other communities[edit]

These will have useful information, but aren't necessarily organized by or run for Wikimedia communities.

References[edit]

  1. ↑ Glott, Ruediger; Schmidt, Philipp; Ghosh, Rishab; et al. (March 2010). "Wikipedia Survey - Overview of Results" (PDF). UNU-MERIT. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 July 2011. 
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