The Centre for Internet and Society
http://editors.cis-india.org
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Preliminary research results - in a nutshell
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/Inanutshellresearchresult.jpg
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/Inanutshellresearchresult.jpg'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/Inanutshellresearchresult.jpg</a>
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No publisherting2017-05-23T11:06:58ZImageSurvey questions and cross-checking factors
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/surveyquestions.png
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/surveyquestions.png'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/surveyquestions.png</a>
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No publisherting2017-05-23T11:05:57ZImageTable of female editor experience
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/tableofexperience.png
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/tableofexperience.png'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/tableofexperience.png</a>
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No publisherting2017-05-23T11:04:57ZImageSurvey results infographics
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/SurveyResults.png
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For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/SurveyResults.png'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/SurveyResults.png</a>
</p>
No publisherting2017-05-23T11:00:04ZImagePreliminary research result on Wikipedia gender gap in India
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/preliminary-research-result-on-wikipedia-gender-gap-in-india
<b>Since June 2016, Ting-Yi Chang from the University of Toronto has worked with the CIS-A2K team to conduct action research on the Wikipedia gender gap in India. The research aims to improve the understanding of the gender gap (imbalance) issue in the Indian Wikipedia communities while examining local interventions.
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<p dir="ltr"><em><br /></em></p>
<p dir="ltr"><em><br /></em></p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>This post is an extraction from the Wikipedia Gender Gap Bridging Toolkit - South Asia Edition which will be published on Wiki (Commons and meta) in late May 2017. The toolkit is a derivative of the gender gap research initiative.</em></p>
<p dir="ltr"> Wikipedia has a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_bias_on_Wikipedia">wide gender gap</a> in participation and content coverage. The <a href="https://wikimediafoundation.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AEditor_Survey_Report_-_April_2011.pdf&page=1">editor survey in 2011</a> showed that among the active editors worldwide only 9% identified themselves as female. While research and initiatives have been proposed and conducted to “bridge the gender gap,” mass majority of these studies are done in the Western context (English/European language Wikipedias and communities). The movement dynamics and situation of other Wikipedian communities are not well explored or documented. Of the few studies that did focus on non-Western contexts, this action research is one of the few to look at the issue in India.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Due to the timeline of the research and the limitation of space in this post, we will only discuss the preliminary findings of the study, specifically for the following questions:</p>
<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Q1:</strong> What are existing female Wikipedians’ (regardless of one’s activeness in editing) experience in the Wikimedian communities?</p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Q2:</strong> What are new female Wikipedians’ (who participated in gender gap bridging events) attitude and preference toward these gender gap bridging activities?</p>
</blockquote>
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p dir="ltr">In Q1, we used<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_coding"> open coding</a> to find recurring themes in the qualitative data collected through 18 semi-structured interviews with 21 female Wikipedians, and label them to find certain patterns of answers. To answer question 2, discussion and infographics will be presented to summarize the 64 survey responses we have gathered.</p>
<div>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Q1: What are existing female Wikipedians’ experience in the Wikimedian communities?</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">Western-based research and survey has shown that a plausible reason behind the gender gap on Wikipedia is the discriminatory and unwelcoming environment within the editor communities. Research was much needed to explore the reasons in the Indian context as we cannot simply apply the same results or rule out the possibility of the same situation. Among the 9 reasons that Sue Gardner, the former Executive Director of WMF, had pointed out in her <a href="https://suegardner.org/2011/02/19/nine-reasons-why-women-dont-edit-wikipedia-in-their-own-words/">2011 blog post</a>, we deem the “misogynist atmosphere” as the most problematic - it signals an unhealthy environment and structure for diversity and long term growth.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Thus, 18 private interviews were held to understand the positive and negative experience that existing female (Indian) Wikipedians have faced in the communities. In this question we are specifically looking at the interaction and interpersonal relationship between community members (editors), hence it does not include experiences like discouragement from speedy deletion or technical difficulty in editing.</p>
<p dir="ltr">In each of the two categories (positive and negative), we use three labels to cover the recurring themes mentioned. In “positive experience,” these are (a) emotional support and respect, (b) bonding and friendship, and (c) other support. In “negative experience,” the three labels are (a) neglected or belittled, (b) sexist comments, and (c) safety concern. </p>
<p dir="ltr"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/tableofexperience.png/image_large" alt="Table of female editor experience" class="image-inline image-inline" title="Table of female editor experience" /></p>
<div dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-c206e32a-2fca-eba8-dce1-2d751b901fe5">
<p dir="ltr">It is interesting to note that although in most (Western-based) research, the positive and negative experiences were in the online context, our interviewees (Indian female Wikipedians) had mostly pointed out experiences that were either offline or in non-specified context. Comments on the online interaction dynamics were fairly rare and neutral, while negative experiences mostly occurred in the offline settings.</p>
<p dir="ltr">This can indicate that the communities’ offline interaction dynamics leaves a much more significant impression (sadly, especially when it is negative) to female Wikipedians on their overall community experience. Additionally, it seems that compared to the Western/English context, Indian Wikipedian communities are more close-knit and active offline, that is, the editors are more likely to know each other personally. This dynamic is a great plus to create positive experience such as strong bonding and emotional support. However, it may also be more toxic when the experience is negative as compared to if the experience was online and anonymous. In other words, sexist comments, deliberate neglect, and safety concerns can have an aggravated effect when faced personally.</p>
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<p dir="ltr">In numbers, more positive experiences were mentioned than negative ones when a neutral question was asked (such as “How do you think about the community?” / ”what is your experience in the editor community so far?”). Most negative experience were only revealed when a negative-oriented question was asked (such as “Have you had any negative or uncomfortable experience so far?”). This may be interpreted that the interviewees’ overall experiences are positive with only occasional negative encounters. However, this interpretation can still be biased if we consider the possibility that:</p>
<ol><li style="list-style-type: upper-alpha;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">There is a lack of trust between the researcher and the interviewees (i.e. Interviewees may have the intention to provide a more pleasing/non-controversial answer), or</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: upper-alpha;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">the selection of our interviewees was already biased since “existing” female Wikipedians can be those that have not experienced much negative experience (i.e. the female editors who were upset by more negative experiences and had already quit editing were not reachable when the interviews were conducted, or they might simply be uninterested in participating in the research).</p>
</li></ol>
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<p dir="ltr"><strong>Q2: What are new female Wikipedians’ (who participated in gender gap bridging events) attitude and preference toward these gender gap bridging activities? </strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">As indicated in our last question, the offline interaction and activities seem to be very crucial in determining a female Wikipedian’s overall experience in the community. In other questions throughout the semi-structured interview, we had asked existing female Wikipedians - who had been active in gender gap bridging event conduct - to discuss what can make an event more welcoming to women. Below are some of the answers given:</p>
<ol><li style="list-style-type: upper-alpha;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">A women-only event (although some also criticized that this approach often made the gender gap a “women-only” discussion)</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: upper-alpha;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Female tutor’s presence</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: upper-alpha;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Offline events where women can meet others face to face (although some had mention that they prefer to participate online - which makes them feel safer and more comfortable)</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: upper-alpha;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">The chance for participants to socialize and make friends</p>
</li><li style="list-style-type: upper-alpha;" dir="ltr">
<p dir="ltr">Write about women-related topics (although some had argued that a gender gap bridging event should not promote the tokenizing logic that (only) women should (only) edit on women-related topics)</p>
</li></ol>
<div> </div>
<p dir="ltr">As you may notice, there are divergence of ideas regarding the points A, C, and E. In order to cross-check all these ideas, a survey of 11 scale-rating questions was developed to understand the new female Wikipedians’ (who participated in a gender gap bridging event) attitude and preferences. Three clusters of questions were formed - general experience, cross-checking questions, and attitude.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/surveyquestions.png/image_large" alt="Survey questions and cross-checking factors" class="image-left image-inline" title="Survey questions and cross-checking factors" /></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-479f8e7a-2fda-b92a-f0fb-be9ceef5f207">Below is an infographics on the 64 responses we had collected: (You may click on the image at the top of this page (under the blog title) to zoom in)</span></p>
<div><span id="docs-internal-guid-c206e32a-2fcb-7754-97f1-a59c8f3093a9">
<div> </div>
<div><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/SurveyResults.png/image_large" alt="Survey results infographics" class="image-left" title="Survey results infographics" /></div>
</span></div>
</span></div>
<div dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-c206e32a-2fce-aa68-d243-c4b03b1426c6">
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p dir="ltr">From the infographics above we can see that event participants’ overall experience are positive. However, it may still be far from perfect as there were 2 respondents who “fully disagreed” with the statement “I find the event environment safe, friendly, and welcoming.” There are still more than 40% of the respondents who thought editing is difficult (or somewhat difficult), which means improvement is needed in our event tutorship or a re-estimation participants’ skill levels is needed. Participants’ attitude towards the events was also mostly positive as indicated in the last two questions.</p>
<br />
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Cross-checking (A): Do women prefer a women-only event?</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">During the events, the presenters and resource persons usually encouraged male participation in the initiatives and stressed that the gender gap bridging efforts cannot be a further segregation between men and women editors. Hence, we do expect this to influence the answers given to the statement “I still prefer a women-only event.” Still, more than one-third of the participants indicated their preference in women-only events; we expect the actual rate to be even higher if the said factor was not present.</p>
<br />
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Cross-checking (B): Is the presence of female tutor(s) important? (Does a tutor’s gender matter?)</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">Question 5 and 6 show very interesting results. In the offline (in real life) event context, there seem to be more disagreement on the statement “I would prefer a woman to be my tutor.” These responses can be affected by the fact that majority of the tutors in Wikipedia events were still men, and if a participant had generally positive experience throughout the event, they might not be against the idea of having a male tutor again. Nonetheless, interestingly, the answer turned the other way around when the scenario changed to an “online” setting. More respondents then agreed that they would prefer a women as their tutor. This may be a sign that women are more alert and defensive when it comes to online interaction with people in the opposite sex.</p>
<br />
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Cross-checking (C) : Do women prefer offline (in-real-life) events over online ones?</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">Over 50% of the respondents chose “fully agree” to the statement while only 5 respondents chose either fully or partially disagree. We can conclude that women who had experience in an offline (in-real-life) event would still prefer the same setting in the future. However, of course, we cannot be sure how many women may have turned down this first event experience because it was offline. In other words, we do not know if the preference of women who had never attended any events. However, what we know is that mass majority of those who had one offline event experience would prefer the offline setting over an online participation.</p>
<br />
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Cross-checking (D): Does socializing matter to women?</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">Majority of the respondents fully agreed with the statement “I would like to socialize with and know more Wikipedians.” This is one of the very few questions where no one disagreed to. Although we cannot calculate the personal utility of socializing or conclude that socializing is “necessary” to make women feel more comfortable, we can assume that it will be a positive addition to the events if women can make new friends in the communities.</p>
<br />
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Cross-checking (E): Are women interested in women-related topics? Or would they have preferred to write about their expertise areas?</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">From the survey, we found that more women actually showed interest in writing on women-related topics than on their domain knowledge subjects. Over 80% of the respondents agreed that they were interested in writing more about women (and related topics) while slightly fewer women said the same about their expertise knowledge. Only 8 out of 64 respondents expressed a preference for writing on their domain knowledge topics over women-related topics. Hence, it seems that women-related topics are a good place to start (for one’s first Wikipedia event experience) as most women enjoyed it. One thing we are not able to estimate is how long can this interest be sustained.</p>
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<p style="text-align: center;" dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-c206e32a-34fe-fe1e-4cf5-84dc39b46457"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/AplHkWcumhKQK6sQErL9uY4CbD9GAMSPKEYLyM3jRjRF88IR3ucn3sJO7SqFsVjiLNHabLOEs5zqRfcqbiFgTIXoxaJkHBsvZqQ77SEFHsUpoDM30EkxmX7S-FXorT9gHkyZnn-O" alt="In a nutshell- research result.jpg" height="432" width="602" /></span></p>
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<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/preliminary-research-result-on-wikipedia-gender-gap-in-india'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/preliminary-research-result-on-wikipedia-gender-gap-in-india</a>
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No publishertingCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeGenderwomen and internetSexual HarassmentWikipedia gender gapResearch2017-05-23T11:09:23ZBlog EntryOnly 8.5pc of Wikipedia Editors are Women. How do we fix the Gender Gap on the Internet?
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/your-story-ting-yi-chang-february-7-2017-only-8.5-percent-of-wikipedia-editors-are-women-how-do-we-fix-the-gender-gap-on-the-internet
<b>Women-related articles are generally shorter, more prone to deletion, and more likely to be peripheral pieces under male-centric articles.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This was published by <a class="external-link" href="https://yourstory.com/2017/02/wikipedia-and-women/">Your Story</a> on February 7, 2017.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">I was beginning an introduction session at a college in Vijayawada. While my audience (mostly female students) was giggling, I wrote down a simple question on the whiteboard:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b><i>“I see more men than women in _____”</i></b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The response was some more shy giggling until some students slowly raised their hands. “Sports!” “Technology companies!” “Conferences!” “In governments!” “…When I am in my class.” There is no denying that we all observe the underrepresentation of women at some points and occasions in our lives. However, it is much harder to imagine and notice that Wikipedia, the most used online encyclopaedia and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_popular_websites" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the 7<sup>th</sup> most visited website worldwide</a>, also poses a problematic imbalance in its content and editor demographics.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-253705" height="400" src="https://d25medu75j19j3.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Women-in-tecchnology-01.jpg" width="800" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In 2011<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Editor_Survey_Report_-_April_2011.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">, a survey</a> carried out by the Wikimedia Foundation found that only 8.5 percent of Wikipedia editors were female. Since then, the awareness has risen; many have found the editor demographic imbalance is a strong reflection of what the encyclopaedia does or does not cover, how the written language and discourse were constructed on the pages, and how discussion flows on article talk pages<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">[1]</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">For example, scholars discovered that women-related articles are generally shorter, more prone to deletion, and more likely to be peripheral pieces under male-centric articles. To elaborate, in the network structure of Wikipedia articles, women’s pages lack centrality as they often provide links and mention related male figures in their writing but not the other way around. A glass ceiling also exists for the notability criteria. The threshold for a woman to be “notable enough” (from the perspective of a male-dominant community) to deserve a Wikipedia page is higher than that of male figures. Thus, the lack of women editors and an already male-centric structure pose a threat not only to the diversity of content but also to the very definition of knowledge.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">But why?</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">For years, the foundation and local communities have tried to discover the reasons behind the gender gap and solutions to it. Former Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Sue Gardner posted on her <a href="https://suegardner.org/2011/02/19/nine-reasons-why-women-dont-edit-wikipedia-in-their-own-words/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">blog</a> nine reasons that are off-putting for women when they edit Wikipedia.</p>
<ol style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>The non-beginner-friendly editing interface</li>
<li>Lack of personal free time</li>
<li>Lack of confidence and self-efficacy</li>
<li>Unwillingness to stir up or participate in conflicts and edit wars</li>
<li>Feeling that their edits are “too likely to be reverted or deleted”</li>
<li>Misogynistic environment</li>
<li>“Wikipedia culture is sexual”</li>
<li>Being addressed as male in languages that have grammatical gender</li>
<li>Wikipedia is not as socialising or as welcoming as other websites</li>
</ol>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In India and other parts of the world, various reasons can also contribute to the problem. Awareness, for example, is the first barrier to be tackled. Many women did not know that Wikipedia is editable or that there are Indian language versions that they can contribute to. Internet access and facilities are a couple more reasons. In case someone does not have a personal computer, a woman is usually more cautious and skeptical when using a public internet café and staying out late. Similarly, families of young women editors can be more concerned about their daughters’ participation in men-organised/male-dominant communities, especially when there are offline (on-site) activities. The roots of the issue are not merely at the community level, but also sociopolitical and cultural.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Many events and initiatives have been carried out from local to global community levels. ‘Women in Red (WiR)’, for example, is a global initiative to bring more women-related articles online. It encourages editors to turn ‘red links’ (non-existing pages) into ‘blue links’ (existing Wikipedia page). The project has helped increase female biographies from 15 percent (November 2014) of total biographies on English Wikipedia to 16.75 percent (November 2016)<a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">[2]</a>. In March, Wikipedia communities around the globe also celebrate ‘Women’s History Month’, when edit-a-thons (marathons for Wikipedia editing) are held to help create more women’s articles online as well as to recruit more female volunteers and spread awareness. However, is this enough?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-253704" height="401" src="https://d25medu75j19j3.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Women-in-tecchnology-02.jpg" width="801" /></p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">“A new debate: what matters?”</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As we are raising more awareness, integrating gender gap issues into the community’s strategy plans and coming up with more intervention ideas to reach more potential women editors, it is time to revisit the meaning behind the work. In my early research time, I was to believe that ‘retention rate’ (whether female participants will stay active after an event), ‘number of articles created’, and the ‘event continuation potentials’ are the key factors in determining whether an event can be called successful. But the ideas have slowly changed as I have got to reach more female participants.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As a matter of fact, Wikipedia is about voluntary contribution and negotiating for consensus in quality knowledge creation as well as maintaining a friendly and open environment for all. In other words, we can ‘nudge’ people into Wikipedia editing but we should not (and need not to) ‘push’ them to do it. Especially in the situation of a wide gender gap, we should not make women feel like they are tokenised in the process — that we are targeting them due to their gender and that they should contribute more because they are female, the minority. When asked about the existing problems in the current gender gap interventions, an active Wikipedian once explained to me:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“Say if you are writing the biography of someone then you should be familiar with and interested in that person’s work. That’s why sometimes those gender-specific edit workshops backfire... If you are creating a bio just because this person is a woman, then I think it is missing the whole point of Wikipedia.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In my opinion and through discussions with several female Wikipedians, I have realised that there should be a new debate and investigation on how intervention goals should be set and what these actions’ long-term results would be. While focusing on the retention rate of a new Wikipedian after an intervention, we limit ourselves in the frame of time and numbers. We should, instead, understand more about new members’ experiences and feedback to pinpoint the good motivations and expected barriers for them. With this information, we should help establish the motivation in event follow-ups and to minimise their barriers as much as the community can. Secondly, article quality should be stressed upon —even if it takes more time to publish her/his first article, it is a much more fruitful learning experience to understand the responsibility of a Wikipedian. After all, low-quality articles not only do not contribute to Wikipedia content but also lead to more deletion, which can be a discouraging experience for those who are new.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">For event continuation, we should guide the participants to community engagement and support them to carry out more event ideas that can suit their interests and goals. In short, it is about creating involvement, discussion, and a sense of community instead of continuously pushing events on our end and have the women be passive participants. When asked about how one can define a “successful gender gap-bridging event,” one of the active organisers told me:</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“For me, it is when conversations are happening. It is when we have both men and women, and that we can openly have a discussion about the issue and the difficulties and how we want to see changes.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">To put it simply, I believe that we should look at experiences more than numbers, focus on quality more than quantity, and try to reach people (both men and women) to stimulate discussion more than being fixated on the contents needed to balance out the asymmetry.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">How to fix the Wikipedia gender gap is never an easy question to ask, but what I am sure about is that Wikipedia and its communities should be empowering rather than result-oriented and that our learning still has a long way to go.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">[1]</a> A “talk page” is attached to each Wikipedia article (found on the top-left corner of an article), where editors can hold discussions and debates or leave comments during the editing process.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://editors.cis-india.org/#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">[2]</a> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Women_in_Red</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/your-story-ting-yi-chang-february-7-2017-only-8.5-percent-of-wikipedia-editors-are-women-how-do-we-fix-the-gender-gap-on-the-internet'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/your-story-ting-yi-chang-february-7-2017-only-8.5-percent-of-wikipedia-editors-are-women-how-do-we-fix-the-gender-gap-on-the-internet</a>
</p>
No publishertingCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeGenderWikipediaWikimedia2017-02-09T02:49:47ZBlog EntryMeet Telugu Wikipedian Surampudi Meena Gayathri – the first South Indian Wikiwoman completing 100Wikidays Challenge
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/meet-telugu-wikipedian-surampudi-meena-gayathri-2013-the-first-south-indian-wikiwoman-completing-100wikidays-challenge
<b>In December 2016, Ms. Meena Gayathri and her fellow Telugu Wikipedians celebrated the Telugu Wikipedia Day and her accomplishment in the 100Wikidays Challenge – a challenge that requires Wikipedians to create one new article per day for one hundred days in a row. When asked about how it feels to take up the challenge and to become the first South Indian Wikiwoman who completed it, she replied “Like exericing, you would think it is hard to do it every day but if you try, it is really satisfying.” Ms. Meena Gayathri has been one of the few active female Telugu Wikipedians since 2014. Her contribution and passion towards her language and culture have transcended into what she called a “knowledge revolution.”</b>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Ms. Meena
Gayathri is an active Telugu Wikipedian who started her <a class="external-link" href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/100wikidays">100Wikidays challenge</a> at the end of August 2016. Her
motivation came from the support of her family, the satisfaction of creating
articles, and her determination to be an inspiration for her fellow Wikipedians. Ms. Meena Gayathri had chosen topics
from her interests, including freedom fighters from Andhra Pradesh, wherein articles were present on English Wikipedia but not in Telugu. “I think those
are really basic things that Telugu Wikipedia should have but somehow there
isn’t” she said. Meena Gayathri reached out to the Telugu community
for assistance with MediaWiki’s content translation tools. She also had the support of CIS A2K for books and reference resources. Drawing inspiration from current events and Indian culture, Meena Gayathri also wrote articles on Hindu Goddesses on each the ten days of Dussehra in coordination with the <a class="external-link" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijayadashami">worshiping of a different Goddess on each day </a>of the festival.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The creation of articles on Hindu Goddesses also mark Meena Gayathri’s effort and passion in bridging
the <a class="external-link" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_bias_on_Wikipedia">Wikipedia gender gap</a> in content coverage. Half way through her challenge, in
coordination with the <a class="external-link" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Asian_Month">Wikipedia Asian Month</a> in November 2016, she started writing
on biographies of Asian women, including female politicians in Sri Lanka and
Pakistan. “It’s very interesting” she said, while mentioning her experience in
researching and writing about these female figures, “(how) these women, under hard
situations… are still securing their positions in the government and in the
politics… I want to let people see how they gain and sustain their power as
women.” Additionally, Meena Gayathri pioneered a
new challenge called “100Women Wikidays Challenge” in which participants would
write a woman-related article each day in an endeavor to balance the content
gender gap on Wikipedia.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify;">“People
said to me that I am the first South India female Wikipedian to complete the
100WikiDays, and the first in the whole world to take up the 100Women Wikidays.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Her
attempt to complete the 100Women Wikidays challenge, however, stopped a few
days ago due to the lack of internet connection and time. In fact, this is not
the first time that she has faced such difficulty during the completion of her
challenges. She described how during a family tour outside of the city, she used
to bring a laptop and ensure stable internet connection just so she can wake up
as early as possible each day to finish her daily articles for the 100Wikidays.
She agrees that women usually seem to be occupied by different
responsibilities and activities – family, work, and socializing. She was glad
that her family and community have given her full support, materially and
mentally, to complete the challenge. When asked about tips on sparing some
time for Wikipedia every day, she answered, “The first thing I do in a day… (is
to) plan each and every moment of what I need to do in my day. And I maintain a
task list in my mind. I will say, just remind yourself twice or thrice a day,
remind yourself what you really want to do and you can make some time for Wiki(pedia)
too.”</p>
<p>At the end of our conversation, we asked Gayathri to share
some advice and encouragement to those who want to take up or are completing
the 100Wikidays (or the 100Women Wikidays) Challenge. She answered without
hesitation, “I will say, don’t feel afraid, that work you want to do is not
that tough after all… It will be satisfying. You are contributing to the
knowledge revolution... I think for Telugu, for the online knowledge in our
linguistic background, this is going to be history. I will tell them ‘We’re
creating a history.’”</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/meet-telugu-wikipedian-surampudi-meena-gayathri-2013-the-first-south-indian-wikiwoman-completing-100wikidays-challenge'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/meet-telugu-wikipedian-surampudi-meena-gayathri-2013-the-first-south-indian-wikiwoman-completing-100wikidays-challenge</a>
</p>
No publishertingAccess to KnowledgeWikimedia100wikidaysWikipediaWikipedia gender gapTelugu Wikipedia2017-01-23T11:53:32ZBlog EntryGender Gap Awareness session in ALC
http://editors.cis-india.org/Gender_gap_awareness_session_in_ALC_3.jpg
<b>Ting-Yi Chang giving an introductory session on the gender gap issue in Wikipedia/media projects during ALC workshop.</b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/Gender_gap_awareness_session_in_ALC_3.jpg'>http://editors.cis-india.org/Gender_gap_awareness_session_in_ALC_3.jpg</a>
</p>
No publisherting2016-12-30T10:38:25ZImageALC Wikisource Workshop
http://editors.cis-india.org/ALC_Wikisource_workshop_November_2016.jpg
<b>Nov 18-20, Students in Andhra Loyola College participated in Wikisource proofreading workshop.</b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/ALC_Wikisource_workshop_November_2016.jpg'>http://editors.cis-india.org/ALC_Wikisource_workshop_November_2016.jpg</a>
</p>
No publisherting2016-12-30T10:36:03ZImageAnother 5 Years: What Have We Learned about the Wikipedia Gender Gap and What Has Been Done? (Part 3.)
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/another-5-years-what-have-we-learned-about-the-wikipedia-gender-gap-and-what-has-been-done-part-3
<b>Five years after Wikimedia Foundation’s 2011 editor survey was conducted and revealed the gender gap issue, scholars, practitioners, and communities around the globe have come a long way to address the gender imbalance of the online encyclopedia. This blog post series (of three parts) serve as a summary of movements and discoveries in Wikipedia gender gap narrowing on both local (India) and global scales.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify;">This is the third
(last) part of the blog series, please see <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/another-5-years-what-have-we-learned-about-the-wikipedia-gender-gap-and-what-has-been-done-part-1">Part 1 </a>and <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/another-5-years-what-have-we-learned-about-the-wikipedia-gender-gap-and-what-has-been-done-part-2">Part 2</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Responding to the
Wikipedia gender gap problem, former WMF Executive Director Sue Gardner set a
target in 2011 to raise the female editor percentage <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/31/business/media/31link.html">to 25%</a> by 2015. In an <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/business-28701772">interview</a> in August 2014, Jimmy Wales declared that “<em>we’ve completely failed,</em>” Gardner also
noted that the solutions should come from local Wikipedian communities rather
than from the Foundation on a macro scale.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Although the
target was not met, initiatives and reforms taken places globally and locally in
the past five years are not fruitless. And as mentioned in Part 2, we should
not define this movement as merely pursuing a goal towards certain percentage
or number. As for now dialogue has been created to include the issue into more strategic
plans; collectives are established to cumulate and share resources across
communities. There has been abundance of learning (and definitely much more to
learn) in the issue.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>What has been done?</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Be it ongoing or spontaneous, international or local, there have been
many interventions trying to address the gender gap in Wikipedia.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><u>Intervention events<em></em></u></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In July 2015, WikiProject
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Women_in_Red">Women in Red</a><span class="MsoHyperlink"> (WiR)</span> was launched to <em>“turn "<a title="Wikipedia:WikiProject Women in Red/Redlist index" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Women_in_Red/Redlist_indexhttps:/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Women_in_Red/Redlist_index">redlinks</a>
(non-existing pages) into <a title="Wikilink" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikilink">blue ones</a> (existing pages).” </em> The project encourages editors worldwide to
create (or expand) female-related pages (biographies, women’s work,
contribution, issues, etc.) that fit the notability criteria of Wikipedia. WiR
also picks monthly and annual topics to feature. Currently in September, 2016,
edit-a-thons on Women in nursing and women labour activists are happening
online. And “Women scientists” edit-a-thon is a year-long featured topic for
2016. Although WiR is still primarily an English-WP project, some communities
have expanded and localized it to local initiatives.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Coincidentally, in
2013, Indian Wikipedian communities have carried out one of the biggest and
most well-known gender gap intervention – <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Lilavati%27s_Daughters_Edit-a-thon">Lilavatis’
Daughters</a>. “Lilavati’s Daughters” is <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-literaryreview/forgotten-daughters/article662225.ece">a
book</a> of essay collections featuring nearly one hundred women scientists in Indian
since the Victorian Era. The 2013 edit-a-thon was hence to create Wikipedia
pages for these biographies in different Indian languages. Collaborating with
institutions and colleges, the event was greeted with high popularity and
success. Similar events were also carried out afterwards, including <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Indian_Women_in_Science_Edit-a-thon">Indian
Women in Science Edit-a-thon</a> which has been held annually since 2014; the
last event was held in July, 2016 at the Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Another
significant initiative across the globe and in Indian communities is the annual
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiWomen%27s_History_Month">Wikiwomen’s history
month</a> in March along with the celebration of International Women’s Day on March
8<sup>th</sup>. The initiative started in 2012, edit-a-thons, photo-thons
(updating photos onto Wikimedia Commons), and meetups have been held to raise
the awareness of the gender gap online, create female-related content available
on Wikipedia, and to strengthen the bonding between local Wikiwomen.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Recently,
Wikimedia Foundation collaborated with the United Nations to launch the one-day
<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/UN_Women_Her_Story">Her Story project</a><span class="MsoHyperlink"> Edit-a-thon</span> on August 12<sup>th</sup>, 2016 to celebrate International Youth Day
globally. Cities in India like <a href="https://www.empowerwomen.org/en/campaigns/herstory">Chennai and Delhi
also held local edit-a-thons</a> on the day of in response to the event. With
the opportunity to work alongside the UN, it is a good sign that the Wikipedia
gender gap issue is drawing global attention, not just in the Wikipedian
community level, but also in global institution level.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><u>Collaborative</u></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiWomen%27s_Collaborative">Wikiwomen’s
Collaborative</a> is a global platform for female Wikipedians to share
projects, insights, and support. The Collaborative also encourages participants
to write blog post on the <a href="https://blog.wikimedia.org/c/community/wikiwomen/">Wikiwomen’s Blog</a>
to spread more words about the gender gap issue and initiatives. A <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Countering_systemic_bias/Gender_gap_task_force">Gender
Gap Task Force (GGTF)</a> was founded in 2013 aiming to challenge the
patriarchal culture of knowledge and Wikipedia. GGTF tries to fix the
encyclopedia’s imbalance power structure by initiating discussion and
examination on its policies and editor interaction. It has also been a place to
cumulate research studies and resources on the gender gap topic. A (global) <a href="https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap">gender gap
mailing list</a> is also created to spread the news and words with more
communities.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><u>Improvement in the
Interface</u></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Aside from events and
collectives organized by respective communities, the Wikipedia platform itself
has also been under constant transition in the last few years, trying to create
a friendlier place for women and newcomers.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Since June 2012,
the new prototype <a href="https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor">Visual
Editor</a> has become available in more and more language versions of Wikimedia
projects – including most Indian languages. Visual Editor enables editor to
contribute without learning the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki_markup">Wiki markups</a>, as it
creates the “write-as-how-you-will-see-it” feature requiring only basic typing
skills. Nevertheless, Visual Editor does have several <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:VisualEditor#Limitations">limitations</a>
comparing to the traditional edit source option, including slower speed, unavailable
in talk and discussion namespaces, limited template editing options, and so on.
While a <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:VisualEditor%27s_effect_on_newly_registered_editors/June_2013_study">research</a>
in 2013 on Visual Editor’s use in English Wikipedia showed low effectiveness of
the new feature in attracting and encouraging new editors, more research should
also be done in the non-English (especially Global South) context. <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Marathi_Wikipedia_Tutorials">Online
tutorial resources</a> about editing are also becoming available in Indian
communities.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikimarkup.png/image_large" alt="Traditional wiki markup editing screenshot" class="image-inline" title="Traditional wiki markup editing screenshot" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Traditional Wiki
markup editing screenshot</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/visualeditor.png/image_large" alt="visual editor of wikipedia screenshot" class="image-inline" title="visual editor of wikipedia screenshot" /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Visual Editor
screenshot</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">On the other hand,
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Editing_on_mobile_devices">mobile
apps of Wikipedia</a> has been improved in its editing function. Although the
apps are still in constant development to make the function smoother and easier
for mobile users, it is a great breakthrough for those who do not have personal
computers to contribute in small ways (or even in great ways – <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Cullen328/Smartphone_editing#Why_I_edit_by_smartphone">some</a>
have created pages and denied the statement that mobile editing is
impractical). </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>What’s more to be learned?</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">There is no
denying that our Indian language communities have been putting efforts to
highlight and address the gender gap issue on Wikipedia. The <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_India_2016">Wikiconference
India 2016</a> in August also had a panel responding to this topic where
panelists from both outreach and research threads proposed localized
perspective and strategies to fix the problem.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">However, there are
still much more to be learned. First of all, we need a more organized feedback
loop (a cycle of planning-executing-evaluating-sharing learning) for local
interventions to learn from our success and mistakes. Secondly, the issue has
to become more “public” in a sense that we are not just promoting within our
own circles. Awareness-building through media coverage and institutional
collaboration can bring in greater public opinions and volunteers to help the
online encyclopedia become a more inclusive place. The third point is a change
of mindset: women's feeling and experience should be put forward into the
central of our initiatives and interventions.</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em>“We made it clear
that we were focusing on the (female) participants and their experience, the
content they created online are of course important too, but that’s just the
by-product.</em>” -<span style="text-align: right;">Wikiconference Indian 2016 Gender Gap panel presenter</span></p>
</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In other words, as
we are engaging more and more women, the focus should not be numbers but the
humans. At the same time, we should always encourage women to stand out and
speak out. As mentioned in the previous part, gender discrimination cases have
not yet been reported in our communities, but we also have to ensure if it does
happen both the female editors and the community should have a certain level of
awareness (what constitutes harassment/discrimination/sexism; when and how to
call out) and a report and support mechanism to the problem.</p>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The road to a real
equalized knowledge system is not easy. As many have noticed and pointed out
“This is not just a Wikipedia problem!” Indeed, similar gender imbalance exists
in our academies, IT industries, free and open-source software (FOSS) workplace,
to name a few. Nonetheless, with the flexibility and the strong bond that Indian
Wikipedian communities possess, we can be one of the pioneers in positive
changes. After all, the knowledge created and action taken today will shape
what our tomorrow can be like.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/another-5-years-what-have-we-learned-about-the-wikipedia-gender-gap-and-what-has-been-done-part-3'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/another-5-years-what-have-we-learned-about-the-wikipedia-gender-gap-and-what-has-been-done-part-3</a>
</p>
No publishertingCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeGenderWikipediaWikipedia gender gapWikimedia2016-09-22T07:54:47ZBlog Entryvisual editor of wikipedia screenshot
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/visualeditor.png
<b></b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/visualeditor.png'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/visualeditor.png</a>
</p>
No publisherting2016-09-18T06:52:07ZImageTraditional wiki markup editing screenshot
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikimarkup.png
<b></b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikimarkup.png'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/wikimarkup.png</a>
</p>
No publisherting2016-09-18T06:51:32ZImagepyramid graph of statements and explanations on wpgg
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/pyramid.png
<b>Examples of statements we make when looking at the gender gap in different levels of mindset</b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/pyramid.png'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/pyramid.png</a>
</p>
No publisherting2016-09-18T06:36:36ZImageAnother 5 Years: What Have We Learned about the Wikipedia Gender Gap and What Has Been Done? (Part 2)
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/another-5-years-what-have-we-learned-about-the-wikipedia-gender-gap-and-what-has-been-done-part-2
<b>Five years after Wikimedia Foundation’s 2011 editor survey was conducted and revealed the gender gap issue, scholars, practitioners, and communities around the globe have come a long way to address the gender imbalance of the online encyclopedia. This blog post series (of three parts) serve as a summary of movements and discoveries about Wikipedia gender gap on both local (India) and global scales.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In the <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/another-5-years-what-have-we-learned-about-the-wikipedia-gender-gap-and-what-has-been-done-part-1">last part</a> of the blog series, we examined the
definition and danger of the Wikipedia gender gap. This issue has been puzzling
for many – why is there such a wide gap globally?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Why is there a gender gap?</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The
reasons behind the Wikipedia gender gap are complex and culturally-sensitive. Two
main types of barriers are discussed as “inside of Wikipedia (internal)” and
“outside of Wikipedia (external).” </p>
<table class="plain">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Internal</th>
<th>External</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td> Challenges using Wiki mark-up and its interface</td>
<td>Limited access to internet and facilities</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>(rare in India) Challenges in getting help from community members</td>
<td>Lack of skills</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>(rare in India) Being discriminated as a newcomer</td>
<td>Lack of confidence</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>(rare in India) Experience of discriminative behavior/conflicts</td>
<td>Limited time</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>The fear of becoming “visible” as one of the few female in the community</td>
<td>Preference to more socially interactive online activities (Lack of interest)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><br /></td>
<td>Awareness - not knowing Wikipedia is editable</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">(From
Jadine Lannon (2013), <em>Same Gaps Different Experience</em>)</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><u>India
v.s. the World</u></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Unfortunately,
most studies have been done in English Wikipedia and rarely in other smaller
language communities, despite the fact that these barriers can vary a lot in
different cultural, political, and economic context. In India, practitioners
and researchers have identified a few potential causes of low female participation
rate on Wikipedia. Contrary to what was discovered in the English Wikipedia,
researchers have found that Indian female Wikipedians are generally more active
and willing to participate in both online and offline interactions compared to
those in the English Wikipedia community. Reports of gender discrimination
cases are also fewer than those in the Western context. A possible explanation
to both phenomena is that Indian Wikipedian communities are rather small and
close-knitted which encourage more interpersonal networking and prevent
anonymous attacks<a name="_ftnref1" href="file:///C:/Users/Ting-Yi/Desktop/coop/Blog%20post/BP2_Gender%20Gap%20summary.docx#_ftn1"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[1]</span></span></a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><u>Awareness</u></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">However,
recruiting and keeping female Wikipedians in India do have its own barriers to
overcome. “Awareness” is discovered as one of the very primary barriers for most
to start editing Wikipedia. Many did not know that the online encyclopedia is easily
editable, and even more have not heard of (or are unfamiliar with the use of)
Wikipedia. Outreach events are important portals for both men and women to
discover and join local Wikipedia communities. And this is where weakness can
be turned into strength; as most newcomers are brought in through community
outreach events or personal connection, it creates a strong bond within the members
and a more welcoming culture featuring collectivism rather than individualism.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><u>On the
societal level?</u></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Although
the binary categorization of inside and outside of Wikipedia is widely used, it
can easily lead us to believe that we can draw a clear line in between
Wikipedia and the offline world, but neglect the big picture which shapes both
sides of the table. Ignoring the fundamental (societal) level of the issue and
its linkage to other factors poses the risk of nurturing a symptom-fixing
solution instead of a system-questioning culture.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">For
example, societal factors such as expectation on women’s/girls’ role and priority
in her family can prevent them from the access to required facilities,
internet, training, and personal leisure time for joining (or continuing
editing) Wikipedia. On the psychological experience side, some women reported
that they do not feel comfortable when being so “visible” online and in the
community<a name="_ftnref2" href="file:///C:/Users/Ting-Yi/Desktop/coop/Blog%20post/BP2_Gender%20Gap%20summary.docx#_ftn2"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[2]</span></span></a>; and this has a lot to do
with how our online (and offline) society has been constructed and
conceptualized as an “unsafe” space for women.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In
fact, Wagner et al. (2015)<a name="_ftnref3" href="file:///C:/Users/Ting-Yi/Desktop/coop/Blog%20post/BP2_Gender%20Gap%20summary.docx#_ftn3"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[3]</span></span></a> have found that a nation’s
Gender Inequality Index (GII) is associated to the country’s editor gender bias
on Wikipedia. Although it was a study focusing on Global North samples, the
logic behind is most likely applicable in India (which ranked <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/2015-report">130 out of 188 countries’ GII in 2014</a>)
– as the more unequally women is treated in the society, the less likely that
she can reach the pre-requisite to be a Wikipedian, or even be online. For
example, in India there is a much lower literacy rate for female than male – 53.7%
to 75.3% as reported in the <a href="http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/India_at_glance/glance.aspx">2011
Census</a>. At the same time, population (above the age of 25) with at least
some secondary education is 56.6% for male and only 27% for female in India
based on the <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/composite/GII#c">UN Human
Development Report</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">All
these societal factors and nuances feed into the gaps we see today – in higher
academic positions, in industries, and eventually in Wikipedia. It is
definitely not easy to address the macro-scale problems, but what we can do is
to change it from the community level to influence individuals and the society.
Hence, we are not just battling against an online phenomenon created by
individuals’ unwillingness to participate, but challenging and redressing the patriarchal
power while transforming the traditions of how knowledge flows. After all, bridging
the gender gap should not be merely a target of “We will reach X% female
participation rate by Y years,” it has much greater potential and
responsibility in the long run for our generations and societies.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><img src="http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/pyramid.png/image_large" alt="pyramid graph of statements and explanations on wpgg" class="image-inline" title="pyramid graph of statements and explanations on wpgg" /><br /></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In the
next part of the blog series, we talk about: <a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/another-5-years-what-have-we-learned-about-the-wikipedia-gender-gap-and-what-has-been-done-part-3"><strong>What has been
done? </strong>& <strong>What’s more to be
learned?</strong></a></p>
<p> </p>
<div><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn1">
<p><a name="_ftn1" href="file:///C:/Users/Ting-Yi/Desktop/coop/Blog%20post/BP2_Gender%20Gap%20summary.docx#_ftnref1"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[1]</span></span></a> From
Jadine Lannon (2013), <em>Same Gaps Different Experience</em> and from WCI 2016
presentation:</p>
</div>
<div id="ftn2">
<p><a name="_ftn2" href="file:///C:/Users/Ting-Yi/Desktop/coop/Blog%20post/BP2_Gender%20Gap%20summary.docx#_ftnref2"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[2]</span></span></a> Jadine, L., (2013). <em>Same Gaps
Different Experience</em></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn3">
<p><a name="_ftn3" href="file:///C:/Users/Ting-Yi/Desktop/coop/Blog%20post/BP2_Gender%20Gap%20summary.docx#_ftnref3"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[3]</span></span></a>
Wagner, Garcia, Jadidi,
& Strohmaier, (2015). It’s a man’s Wikipedia? Assessing gender inequality
in an online encyclopedia. From the Wikipedia editor community is sensible to
gender in Proceedings of the Ninth International AAAI Conference on Web and
Social Media 454. URL:
https://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/ICWSM/ICWSM15/paper/viewFile/10585/10528 </p>
<p> </p>
</div>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/another-5-years-what-have-we-learned-about-the-wikipedia-gender-gap-and-what-has-been-done-part-2'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/another-5-years-what-have-we-learned-about-the-wikipedia-gender-gap-and-what-has-been-done-part-2</a>
</p>
No publishertingCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeGenderWikipediaWikipedia gender gapWikimedia2016-09-22T07:55:39ZBlog EntryAnother 5 Years: What Have We Learned about the Wikipedia Gender Gap and What Has Been Done? (Part 1)
http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/another-5-years-what-have-we-learned-about-the-wikipedia-gender-gap-and-what-has-been-done-part-1
<b>Five years after Wikimedia Foundation’s 2011 editor survey was conducted and revealed the gender gap issue, scholars, practitioners, and communities around the globe have come a long way to address the gender imbalance of the online encyclopedia. This blog post series (of three parts) serve as a summary of movements and discoveries about Wikipedia gender gap on both local (India) and global scales.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em>“Our editing community continues to suffer
from a lack of women editors…. only 8.5% of editors are women.</em>”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Probably
the most cited statement for Wikipedia gender gap studies, the <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Editor_Survey_Report_-_April_2011.pdf">editor
survey</a> conducted by Wikimedia Foundation in April 2011 revealed
the alarming imbalance within the online encyclopedia community(s). In the same
survey, the percentage of female Wikipedians in India is reported as only 3%. When
we have repeatedly emphasized on the development and changes the internet can
bring to our societies, how do we ensure that behind our computer screen it is
not just another mirror reflecting what has been silenced and forgotten?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"> </p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>What is the Wikipedia gender gap?</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">There
are two main focus on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_bias_on_Wikipedia">gender
gap within Wikipedia</a> – the editor demographic and the coverage of
topics – which are essentially flip sides of a coin. With fewer female
contributors, we are losing a more diverse knowledge platform for all. But the
issue is far more complex than simply having less information about “friendship
bracelets” than “baseball cards.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Looking
at the biography pages on Wikipedia, researchers found that not only is the number of
female biographies much lower than males’ (due to historical factors, availability
of firsthand sources, and editors’ interest), but the linguistic and topical
bias within also presents <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Writing_about_women#cite_note-1">a male-centered discourse</a>. For example, on women’s
biography pages, words related to one’s gender such as “women,” “female,”
“lady” will be used more commonly than the counterpart words in men’s pages;
and that a women’s biography will have more information about her marriage and
family life than her male counterpart’s. Studies also found that female-related
articles are more likely to be linked to male-related ones but not the other
way around<a name="_ftnref1" href="file:///C:/Users/Ting-Yi/Desktop/coop/Blog%20post/BP2_Gender%20Gap%20summary.docx#_ftn1"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[1]</span></span></a>. This
demonstrates that the editing preference, styles, and content
are closely related to the editors’ genders and how they see the world. In
other words, language and knowledge cannot be separated from one’s gender – the
Internet may be bodiless but it can never become genderless<a name="_ftnref2" href="file:///C:/Users/Ting-Yi/Desktop/coop/Blog%20post/BP2_Gender%20Gap%20summary.docx#_ftn2"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[2]</span></span></a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Wagner et al.’s paper<a name="_ftnref3" href="file:///C:/Users/Ting-Yi/Desktop/coop/Blog%20post/BP2_Gender%20Gap%20summary.docx#_ftn3"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[3]</span></span></a> in early
2016 also confirmed the existence of a “glass ceiling” for female figures to be
considered “notable” enough to have a Wikipedia bio page (or for the page not
to be deleted). Who gets to decide what is “notable enough” becomes
questionable when we understand the gender bias. As a matter of fact, while the
difference in male and female biography numbers is narrower for globally known
figures, a larger gender gap exists for “local hero(ine)s” because of the
notability threshold applied. That is to say, many women and female-related
topics are underrepresented (and underappreciated) on Wikipedia.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>The danger and why it matters</strong><strong></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em><u>Low awareness</u></em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The
Wikipedia gender gap is problematic and deserves more attention than ever not
only because gender imbalance should be tackled both online and offline, but
also that this imbalance is so prevalent and has been taken for granted by most.
Little do people consider, that with every single “click” on one’s google
search, we can be provided with an answer from a single-gender narration. This
imbalance and its problems are behind the scene – the share of male and female
editors are never on the surface without a holistic survey. While gender
balance has been pushed in our business, education, and government sectors, the
online encyclopedia feeding <a href="http://www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users/">billions</a> of
internet users (and <a href="http://www.trai.gov.in/WriteReadData/PIRReport/Documents/Indicator_Reports.pdf">over
300 million in India</a> itself) is
still constructed in a male-dominant culture with little questioning from the
public.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em><u>Legacy
and influence</u></em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">There
is the saying that Internet is changing the human default from “forgetting”
into “remembering.” Wikipedia can serve as a great tool for digitization of
knowledge and the preservation of languages. What is to be recorded now will
become parts of (perhaps the most accessible) history in the future, and we
cannot afford a history without women’s voices and knowledge. Hence, to include
more women editors and women-related content is not simply out of a concern of
diversity, it is to ensure that this time we can pass on the legacy in a better
and more equitable fashion for the whole population.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em><u>The vicious
circle</u></em></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em>“We’ve to participate in meet ups
and workshops, then question (from family members) arises like how many guys
are there, is there any girl or not. In one sentence we're discouraged by our
surrounding</em>.”</p>
<p align="right" style="text-align: right;">– Female editor from local community</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">The urgency of this problem is that
the lesser women are presented in the communities, the harder a motivation can
be established for new female editors to join. Now that we have made this issue
visible, the core mission we have is to ensure a change in the system and
environment that helps women feel more welcomed and comfortable – even when
they are aware that they are the minority.</p>
<div>
<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In the next part
of this blog series:<a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/another-5-years-what-have-we-learned-about-the-wikipedia-gender-gap-and-what-has-been-done-part-2"> <strong>Why is
there a Gender Gap?</strong></a></p>
</div>
<p> </p>
<div><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="ftn1">
<p><a name="_ftn1" href="file:///C:/Users/Ting-Yi/Desktop/coop/Blog%20post/BP2_Gender%20Gap%20summary.docx#_ftnref1"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[1]</span></span></a> Wagner, Graells-Garrido,
Garcia, & Menczer, (2016). Women through the glass ceiling: gender
asymmetries in Wikipedia. <em>EPJ Data Science</em>. (5)1. Pp 1-24.</p>
<p>Graells-Garrido,
Lalmas, & Menczer, (2015). First women second sex: gender bias in Wikipedia.
In <em>Proceedings of the 26th ACM Conference on Hypertext & Social Media </em>(pp165)<em>.</em></p>
<p>Wagner, Garcia, Jadidi, & Strohmaier, (2015). It’s a man’s
Wikipedia? Assessing
gender inequality in an online encyclopedia. From the Wikipedia editor
community is sensible to gender in <em>Proceedings of the Ninth International
AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media 454.</em> URL: https://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/ICWSM/ICWSM15/paper/viewFile/10585/10528</p>
</div>
<div id="ftn2">
<p><a name="_ftn2" href="file:///C:/Users/Ting-Yi/Desktop/coop/Blog%20post/BP2_Gender%20Gap%20summary.docx#_ftnref2"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[2]</span></span></a> Code, L. (2000). Encyclopedia
of feminist theories. London: Routledge</p>
</div>
<div id="ftn3">
<p><a name="_ftn3" href="file:///C:/Users/Ting-Yi/Desktop/coop/Blog%20post/BP2_Gender%20Gap%20summary.docx#_ftnref3"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[3]</span></span></a> Wagner, Graells-Garrido,
Garcia, & Menczer, (2016). Women through the glass ceiling: gender
asymmetries in Wikipedia. <em>EPJ Data Science</em>. (5)1. Pp 1-24.</p>
</div>
</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/another-5-years-what-have-we-learned-about-the-wikipedia-gender-gap-and-what-has-been-done-part-1'>http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/another-5-years-what-have-we-learned-about-the-wikipedia-gender-gap-and-what-has-been-done-part-1</a>
</p>
No publishertingCIS-A2KAccess to KnowledgeGenderWikipediaWikimedia2016-09-21T10:13:59ZBlog Entry