Learning patterns/Bringing women together to work towards gender and linguistic inclusiveness
What problem does this solve?[edit]
Gender gap in Wikimedia movement is known fact all over the world.[1] This in tune with the fact that less number of women participate in open source ICT projects.[2] People in and around Mangaluru which is a coastal Karnataka, India, speak many languages, mainly Kannada, Tulu and Konkani. While Kannada Wikipedia existed since 2003, Konkani and Tulu Wikipedias have become live recently. Both the number and quality of articles in these Wikipedias need improvement. Less women participation is a fact in these Wikipedias as well. But the ratio of women editors to men editors in these languages is better compared to global statistics. Nevertheless, this needs to be improved. Our aim was to bring more women into Wikipedia movement, add more articles to these language Wikipedias, with a little emphasis on topics related to women, thereby killing two birds in one stone.
What is the solution?[edit]
We created an informal group called Wiki Women Mangaluru with an aim to encourage more women in and around Mangaluru to become Wikipedia editors. Wikiwomen Mangaluru strives to bridge the Gender Gap in Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. The focus is mainly on Kannada, Tulu and Konkani language Wikipedias. We organised regular meetups and editathons to achieve the goals mentioned above. Mainstream media and social media were employed to reach our messages to the stakeholders. We found Whatsapp group is most effective followed by Facebook group.
Things to consider[edit]
- Bringing awareness about Wikipedia and its usefulness is most important
- Women need to be told about gender gap and the need to bridge it
- Smaller languages like Tulu and Konkani speakers have to be educated about the lack of information in those languages and how Wikipedia can help
- Should be in regular touch with the community –phone, social media, Whatsapp group helps
- Motivation is an important driving factor
- Men also help
- Need to put more efforts for Konkani
When to use[edit]
- Creating a new community to work towards diversity
- For lesser known languages
Endorsements[edit]
- Thank you Dhanalakshmi and the Wikimedians in Mangaluru to initiate such great space for Wikiwomen. Looking forward to seeing more meetups, events, and news! :) Elisachang (talk) 11:22, 22 March 2017 (UTC)
- Great idea! Jaluj (talk) 20:12, 22 March 2017 (UTC)
- Good work. I would like to see an updated survey results about gender gap studies, with special focus on India--Pavanaja (talk) 07:05, 21 August 2017 (UTC)