Gender gap/Knowledge

Read (blogpost, media etc.)

A selection of articles about the gender gap:

2022

(2022, en) The Wednesday Index: One Year of Gender Diversity Data Visualized
(2022, it) WikiDonne, il progetto per riequilibrare la presenza femminile su Wikipedia
(2022, en) Measuring gender diversity in Wikipedia articles in The Signpost

2021

(2021, en) The Women of Wikipedia Are Writing Themselves Into History (Glamour)
(2021, en) Article from Noam Cohen on Wired about the need for civilizing laws

2020

(2020, en, fr) SignPost story about the French article "Chercher une Femme"
(2020, nl) In de oorlog om de feiten durven vrouwen nog te weinig
(2020, fr) Un marathon pour enrichir Wikipédia des figures du matrimoine bruxellois: «18% de femmes seulement dans l’encyclopédie en ligne», 24 September 2020

2019

(2019, en) The Notability Blues, by Stephen Harrison, March 2019
(2019, en) [1], Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez – review. The Gardian, March 2019
(2019, fr) Sur Wikipédia, parité en bande organisée, Le Monde, 07 June 2019
(2019, nl) Vrouwelijk intellect, Wikipedia zoekt u, De Volkskrant July 24th
(2019, fr) Sur Wikipedia, les harceleurs restent impunis, Slate 14 Apr 2019
(2019, en) Wikipedia is not officially a social network. But the harassment can get ugly New York Times, 08 Apr 2019
(2019, en) Wikipedia still hasn’t fixed its colossal gender gap, Fast Company, 13 Novembre 2019

2018

(2018, en) Advancing gender equity: Conversations with movement leaders. Wikimedia Foundation published a report that highlights the experiences of 65 Wikimedians working toward gender equity on Wikimedia projects. It covers motivations, best practices, and challenges. September 2018.
(2018, fr) Matrimoine, quand Wikipedia se prend les pieds dans le féminisme, France Inter, 15 Sept 2018
(2018, nl) Nobelprijswinnares had geen Wikipedia-pagina, en dat is niet vreemd, NOS, 05 October

2017

(2017, nl) Wikipedia zoekt vrouwelijke vrijwilligers, Parool, november 3rd 2017
(2017, nl) Mannen domineren Wikipedia & op de BNR-radio, BNR, July 21

2016

(2016, fr) Au pays des wikis, Le Monde, 27 Aug 2016
(2016, en) How I tackle Wiki gender gap one article at a time - oped by Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight. 07 Dec 2016
(2016, nl) volkskrant.nl: De (broodnodige) vrouwelijke inhaalslag van Wikipedia - nav internationale vrouwendag en het gendergap-project, Volkskrant, 6 March 2016
(2016, nl) Jarig Wikipedia naarstig op zoek naar meer vrouwen, nu.nl, 15 Januari 2016

2015

(2015, fr) Wikipedia ou comment féminiser un village de Schtroumphs, Le Temps, 01 Oct 2015
¿A qué llamamos brecha de género en Wikipedia? - written by Jalu, july 2015

2014

(2014, en) "Charting Diversity: Working together towards diversity in Wikipedia." Wikimedia Deutschland cooperated with the Beuth University of Applied Science to write a paper about diversity in Wikipedia. It begins with a review of the situation in the German Wikipedia and then offers different concepts and possibilities about how to improve diversity in Wikipedia. August 2014.

2013

(2013, en) Wikipedia's gender gap and the complicated reality of systemic gender bias, Adrianne Wadewitz in HASTAC, July 26, 2013.
(2013, nl) Feministen 'bestormen' seksisme op Wikipedia, HLN.be, 3 september 2013

2011

(2011, en) Gender Gap? Look Up Wikipedia’s Contributor List, Noam Cohen in the New York Times, January 30, 2011.
(2011, en) Where Are the Women in Wikipedia? Debate with a number of debaters, New York Times, February 2, 2011.
(2011, en) Wikipedia(EN) Signpost Issue on Gender Gap, February 7, 2011.
(2011, en) Top 10 Reasons to Encourage more Women Participation in Wikipedia here on Meta, February 8, 2011.
(2011, en) Nine Reasons Women Don’t Edit Wikipedia (in their own words), Sue Gardner's Blog, February 19, 2011.
Gender Gap Manifesto, created March 2011 by seven Wikimedia editors.
(2011, nl) Wikipedia wil meer vrouwen/Wikipedia wants more women, November 11, 2011
(2011, nl) Wikipedia moet vrouwelijker worden, August 18, 2011

2010

(2010, en) Unlocking the Clubhouse: Five ways to encourage women to edit Wikipedia, Sue Gardner's Blog, November 14, 2010.

2007

First ever Wikiwomen meetup (a lunch at Wikimania in Taipei)

2003

Anthere begins to record women participants

Media Reviews

(en) Gender gap task force/Media
(en) Media Review by Women in Red
(fr) Media Review by Les sans pagEs
(de) Media Review by WikiProjekt Frauen (not only media from Germany, Austria, Switzerland)
(it) Media Review by WikiDonne
add your link

Watch and listen

(fr) Watch videos from les sans pagEs on Youtube Channel

(en, fr) Watch videos from Wiki Loves Women on YouTube Channel

(it) Watch videos from WikiDonne on YouTube Channel

(2020, en) Closing the Gender Gap - Wikimedia UK
(2020, fr) Yasield from Cote d'Ivoire - Art and Feminism Introduction to Wikipedia - Art and Feminism
(2017, fr) Comment traduire un article Wikipédia avec le gadget de traduction - Les sans pagEs
(2015, en) Ewan McAndrew's talk "Wikipedia 15: Wikipedia's content gender gap"
(2014, en) Art and Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, February 1, 2014.webm
(2014, en) Sumana Harihareswara's talk "Hospitality, Jerks, and What I Learned" (Opening keynote address at Wiki Conference USA, May 30, 2014, in New York City.)

Snapshot 2020

Wikipedia is powered by humans, so it is vulnerable to human biases. It is also a reflection of structural and historical inequalities in opportunity and representation experienced by women around the world. For example, Wikipedia depends on the availability of existing published sources to verify the facts in its articles. But in many places around the world, women have been left out of historical narratives and traditional sources of knowledge – an issue that many institutions and publications today are trying to address. As our societies begin to uncover and acknowledge the critical contributions of women past and present, so too must Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects.

We also know that articles are more comprehensive and neutral when a diversity of different people can contribute to them. Historically, more men than women have edited Wikipedia, which has had a direct result on the kind of information that is covered on Wikipedia and how that information is presented. We believe one of the first steps in solving the gender gap is through understanding the problem. See below for the latest research and data on this issue.

Fewer than 20 percent of Wikipedia editors identify as women. (The Wikipedia Gender Gap Revisited: Characterizing Survey Response Bias with Propensity Score Estimation, Benjamin Mako Hill, Aaron Shaw).
On English Wikipedia, fewer than 18 percent of biographies are about women. (See here for the latest data on Wikipedia biographies by gender.)
More men than women have tried to edit Wikipedia at least once. Across Wikipedia users in all six of the regions surveyed (the United States, Mexico, Egypt, Nigeria, Germany, and India), 27 percent of male respondents had edited Wikipedia at least once, while only 21 percent of female respondents had (Women and Wikipedia survey, 2019).
Representation matters: Women read relatively more biographies about women than men do, and relatively fewer biographies about men than men do (Reader Research, 2019).
Across regions, men tend to read Wikipedia more often than women. Though awareness and usage of Wikipedia are high for both men and women in many regions of the world, based on reader surveys we estimate that one-third (33 percent) of Wikipedia readers over the age of 18 on any given day are women. (Reader Research, 2019).
When you look at leadership in the free knowledge movement, women are also playing important roles — from editing on the projects, leading events, and actively participating in local chapters, thematic organizations, and user groups that together comprise the Wikimedia movement. Women make up 25.6 percent of movement organizers. Movement organizers lead events, build community identity, direct priorities for the movement, and develop partnerships to amplify and extend the impact of the projects. Women also make up 64 percent of Wikimedia affiliate members (Community Insights, 2019).

Source

Selection of visuals

Gender for Contributors in 2018
Gender in 2018