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Wikipedia contributors: 87% men, 13% women
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| Clearly Not JBJ |
| quote: | In 10 short years, Wikipedia has accomplished some remarkable goals. More than 3.5 million articles in English? Done. More than 250 languages? Sure.
But another number has proved to be an intractable obstacle for the online encyclopedia: surveys suggest that less than 15 percent of its hundreds of thousands of contributors are women.
About a year ago, the Wikimedia Foundation, the organization that runs Wikipedia, collaborated on a study of Wikipedia’s contributor base and discovered that it was barely 13 percent women; the average age of a contributor was in the mid-20s, according to the study by a joint center of the United Nations University and Maastricht University.
Sue Gardner, the executive director of the foundation, has set a goal to raise the share of female contributors to 25 percent by 2015, but she is running up against the traditions of the computer world and an obsessive fact-loving realm that is dominated by men and, some say, uncomfortable for women.
Her effort is not diversity for diversity’s sake, she says. “This is about wanting to ensure that the encyclopedia is as good as it could be,” Ms. Gardner said in an interview on Thursday. “The difference between Wikipedia and other editorially created products is that Wikipedians are not professionals, they are only asked to bring what they know.”
“Everyone brings their crumb of information to the table,” she said. “If they are not at the table, we don’t benefit from their crumb.”
With so many subjects represented — most everything has an article on Wikipedia — the gender disparity often shows up in terms of emphasis. A topic generally restricted to teenage girls, like friendship bracelets, can seem short at four paragraphs when compared with lengthy articles on something boys might favor, like, toy soldiers or baseball cards, whose voluminous entry includes a detailed chronological history of the subject.
Even the most famous fashion designers — Manolo Blahnik or Jimmy Choo — get but a handful of paragraphs. And consider the disparity between two popular series on HBO: The entry on “Sex and the City” includes only a brief summary of every episode, sometimes two or three sentences; the one on “The Sopranos” includes lengthy, detailed articles on each episode.
Is a category with five Mexican feminist writers impressive, or embarrassing when compared with the 45 articles on characters in “The Simpsons”?
The notion that a collaborative, written project open to all is so skewed to men may be surprising. After all, there is no male-dominated executive team favoring men over women, as there can be in the corporate world; Wikipedia is not a software project, but more a writing experiment — an “exquisite corpse,” or game where each player adds to a larger work.
But because of its early contributors Wikipedia shares many characteristics with the hard-driving hacker crowd, says Joseph Reagle, a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard. This includes an ideology that resists any efforts to impose rules or even goals like diversity, as well as a culture that may discourage women.
“It is ironic,” he said, “because I like these things — freedom, openness, egalitarian ideas — but I think to some extent they are compounding and hiding problems you might find in the real world.”
More from NYTimes |
Women and men use the Internet in pretty similar numbers, so that can't be the cause of this huge gender gap. So, what is? Are men simply more confident in their opinions, so they are more likely to try and put them in an encyclopedia? Do they have more free time to do "leisure" net activities like edit Wikipedia? Some other factor? |
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| Sushipunk |
| quote: | Originally posted by Clearly Not JBJ
Women and men use the Internet in pretty similar numbers, so that can't be the cause of this huge gender gap. So, what is? Are men simply more confident in their opinions, so they are more likely to try and put them in an encyclopedia? Do they have more free time to do "leisure" net activities like edit Wikipedia? Some other factor? |
Most women can get laid if they want. Lots of men can't.
.: Wikipedia. |
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| Clearly Not JBJ |
| The "sexless men desperate for entertainment and / or personal significance" theory. Interesting. :p |
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| Sushipunk |
| quote: | Originally posted by Clearly Not JBJ
The "sexless men desperate for entertainment and / or personal significance" theory. Interesting. :p |
Just a theory :p |
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| Moongoose |
| Women are busy washing the dishes and cleaning house, giving men time to work. |
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| The17sss |
| quote: | Originally posted by Moongoose
Women are busy washing the dishes and cleaning house, giving men time to work. |
:stongue: |
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| Acton |
| Impossible, there are no women on the internet. |
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| Zyklon_Jay |
| people will still chicks if they are fat and smell bad...look at the nba. |
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| dj_alfi |
| quote: | | The entry on “Sex and the City” includes only a brief summary of every episode, sometimes two or three sentences; the one on “The Sopranos” includes lengthy, detailed articles on each episode. |
One show is a thrilling action drama, while the other is about three women and a horse that goes shopping in NYC. In EVERY episode! |
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| -FSP- |
| I can't find the link, just take my word for it, but I read that most contributors to wikipedia tend to be libertarian too. |
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| Clearly Not JBJ |
| quote: | Originally posted by -FSP-
I can't find the link, just take my word for it, but I read that most contributors to wikipedia tend to be libertarian too. |
Definitely need a source for that... |
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| Chris Crossland |
| quote: | Originally posted by Moongoose
Women are busy washing the dishes and cleaning house, giving men time to work. |
Haha yessssssss |
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