Grants:Project/MSIG/Assessing the Women's Movement Experience on the Lusophone Wikimedia

This Wikimedia Foundation grant has a fiscal sponsor. Grupo de usuários Wiki Movimento Brasil administered the grant on behalf of CalliandraDysantha.

statusFunded

Movement Strategy

CalliandraDysantha/Assessing the Women's Movement Experience on the Lusophone Wikimedia

The project aims to assess the different experiences of the active women contributors on the Lusophone Wikimedia, in order to identify the challenges posed to this underrepresented community and its current needs around the bridging of the Gender Gap. The gathered data will contribute to advancing the Movement Strategy Initiative of Global approach for local skill development by considering a localized context in perspective with the global direction towards Knowledge Equity.

targetPortuguese Wikipedia

start date15 December

start year2022

end date15 June

end year2023

budget (local currency)46000

budget (USD)8880

grant typeindividual

non-profit statusyes, fiscal sponsor

grantee• CalliandraDysantha

contact(s)• calliandra.dysantha@protonmail.com

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Portuguese note: para a tradução em português acesse A experiência do Movimento de Mulheres na Wikimedia Lusófona: uma estima-ativa on pt.wikiversity.org

A Talking Point: Localizing Women’s Participation, Globalizing the Gender Gap Consensus

The Gender Gap is a talking point in the Wikimedia Movement's recent history. A considerable amount of research and actions targeted this gap on-wiki, coming mostly from the Global North. Like many Global South communities, Lusophone people have been left behind in the building of Wikimedia Gender Gap consensus. Up to this date, Lusophone women have not managed to establish a transnational user group. Furthermore, the contributors of Mulheres a Vermelho did not gain a fraction of the research visibility targeting the project’s main branch, Women in Red.
Although the Gender Gap scenario might happen similarly across different languages, it does involve cultural particularities. Diversity permeates the global collective action of Wikimedian women, thus differentiating multiple experiences in terms of sexuality, race or ethnicity, and functional diversity, as well as technical knowledge, cultural, social, and geographic contexts. Bridging the Gender Gap is a double challenge towards a more diverse Wikimedia, it encompasses both content and participation. These two sides emerge as key-actions within the strategic direction towards Knowledge Equity.
A assessment is urgent to assure the empowerment and strengthening of this underrepresented community. Assessing the diverse experiences of women-editors in the Lusophone Wikimedia can provide accurate indicators of its main challenges and aspirations. These are the conditions necessary for a proper strategic planning of the community growth, diversification, and organic actions. More broadly, the localized assessment can enable a greater (and more diverse) awareness on the topic of female participation in the Wikimedia movement as a whole. It can also provide the means of comparison with data coming from other communities, the more established ones, the English, French, and Spanish-speaking women’s user groups.
Making the Wikimedia movement a more welcoming space, in favor of building strong and diverse communities, is one of the goals of our Strategy 2030. Assessing these specific experiences can unveil the technical, political, and social barriers preventing these and other people from contributing to Wikimedia. Furthermore, it might allow us, Lusophone Women, to share our perspectives on the future of the Wikimedia Movement. In doing so, we can translate our own terms to the global conversation and not just the other way around. Lastly, the questions posed by this project might as well be replicable in other underrepresented contexts.

Project Goal and Activities

The project goal aims to assess different experience levels (individual, collective, and general) of the active women contributors on the Lusophone Wikimedia. Across multiple phases, the project will consider the localized context of the lusophone community in comparison with the global Wikimedia movement.

Contribution to the Movement Strategy

The project focus on the initiative of Global approach for local skill development, which encompasses the actions of gathering data, matching peers, mentorship, and recognition.The research outcome can provide indicators for strategic planning on women’s skill development, organized activities, and user rights empowerment within the Lusophone community.
The targeted initiative projects a systematic plan for skill development on two levels: 1. Local skill development and 2. Global coordination of local skill development activities. Therefore, the Lusophone Women experience assessment will provide solid data about the community’s both assets and needs, in terms of skill development. In the light of this data, the report will deliver a systematic plan for the future implementation of local skill development through a global approach. The plan will cover the following year of the research completion, proposing a schedule of strategic training, events, and tutorial material publication.
The implementation plan should finally aim to form and enlarger global connections. The activities’ objective should be data socialization and peer-learning in a global scale. Regarding this, it is import to note that Lusophone people are a global community. The established Lusophone women network is organized transnationally, in-between South America and Europe. Additionally, there are still underrepresented Global South women within our linguistic context, from Africa and Asia.
Once the planning and report are completed, the research’s outcome will be widely shared, in order to integrate the global pooling of information, specific to women’s organization within the Wikimedia Movement. The circulation of this material will enable new connections with other global communities: Wikimedian women from the Spanish-speaking in Latin America and from other linguistic contexts of both the Global South and North.
Targeting the initiative #32 of “Global approach for local skill development”, the research will:

• Methodologically map the community’s current assets and needs;
• Propose a one-year plan for the local community’s skills development initiatives in the near future;
  

And the resultant systematic plan will:

• Strengthen the existent Lusophone women network, and outreach underrepresented communities, forming new global connections;
• Enable services that facilitate peer connection across the Global Movement (peer-learning, networking and information pool);

Research Levels and Phases

Specific questions and reflections will guide the activities, divided into different phases.

Level	Individual	Collective	General
Methodology	Interview and Survey	Building Consensus	On-wiki Data Systematization

PHASE 1: Individual Experiences Survey and Interview
The following questions will guide the project: Which are the experiences of the Lusophone Wikimedia’s women contributors? What are the differences and similarities in terms of identity and background? How do other systemic gaps interrelate with gender in this context? What are the challenges and aspirations for the establishment of an organic movement of women in the Lusophone Wikimedia?
PHASE 2: Collective Experience Consensus and Movement Strategy Implementation
The previous outputs, the Individual Experiences Survey outcome, will guide the collective reflection on: What is accurate (and what is not) to represent a consensus? What are the organization main challenges? What do we project collectively for the future? Which people and experiences are still absent or underrepresented amongst our movement? What can the global Wikimedia movement learn from the Lusophone women experience? Correlatedly, what can the local movement learn from the global women experience? What are the possible comparison or intersection between such experience and other human experiences, such as black people and people of color, LGBTQIAP+, neuro and functionally diverse people?
The collective discussion should incorporate the strategic exercise of building consensus targeting future actions What’s the group main needs for the following year and what assets do we currently have to overcome them? What kind of activities can implement in the following year, in order to mitigate the most latent challenges and achieve a collective skill development (implementation plan)? What kind of external support does our group need to achieve this (funding, mentoring, peer-learning)? What kind of efforts do we need to outreach Lusophone women external to the axis Brazil-Portugal, and to better welcome other human experiences still absent or underrepresented in our movement? How can we reach other communities and add-up to the collective consensus on the Gender Gap, as well as the global conversation regarding the 2030 Strategy (trans-linguistic meetings, affiliates outreaching, publication sharing)?
PHASE 3: Data systematization and Writing (Research Report & Draft Implementation Plan)
PHASE 4: First and Second Peer-review of the outcomes
PHASE 5: Research Report & Draft Implementation Plan Revision, Translation, and Publication

Project Background

Program

The project will be conducted from 15 December 2023 to 15 June 2023, with a recess regarding International Women's Day's activities.

Research Program

December and January	February and March	April and May	May and June
Preparation and Phase 1	Phase 2 and 3	Phase 4	Phase 5

Place

The project will take place online:

• Research survey, plans, materials, and analysis will be created on Google Apps. Research will be conducted using GoogleForms for surveying, GoogleMeet for interviews and meetings, Google Sheets/Docs for data analysis and report writing.
• History observation and Data collection will also take place on-wiki.Inquiry will be conducted across the different Wikimedia projects, using Xtools as a source and systematization tool.
• Reporting will be shared on meta.wikimedia and pt.wikipedia (in English and Portuguese) and other established wikimedian channels in Social Media and Mailing list.
• The results will be shared in the global skill development needs assessment and surveying to help represent our communities specific context.

Focus

The challenges that this project aims to address:

• Lack of information about the community's main challenges, capacity needs, and collective goals. Since the Wikimedia’s Women-user Training (2021), organized by Wiki Movimento Brasil, Lusophone women struggle to create a transnational user group that can deal with the needs assessment and work planning. Previous to this, since 2019, the Wiki Editoras Lx have been working to bridge the systemic gaps of pt.Wikipedia as a local and grassroot movement. The research aims to assist, with precise indicators, the actions already in motion, but also to assess whether, how, and why a user group can impact the participation of women within our communities.

Horizon

The opportunities that this project aspires to seize:

• Community self-awareness, strengthening, and growth: the size of our community has been increasing: the women’s gathering at Wikicon Brazil 2022 and its equitable participation in the event (nearly 50% of Wikicon Brasil attendees were women) are proof of that. Likewise, the aforementioned Wiki Editoras Lx, by supporting the participation of women in the Lusophone Wikimedia, have swelled our ranks. There are more people available to learn new skills and use them to progress our work, possibly achieving a user group and a sustainable movement.

Activities Description

The research will operate in different phases and will assess multiple levels of women’s experiences. As experience is a subjective matter, the survey will not be led through merely quantitative parameters, but utmost qualitative reflections. Quantitative data will be auxiliary to the main concern.
We will rely on the collective review of the research results, to acknowledge the collective response-ability over the consensus generated during the investigation and its discussions. The approach aims to dislocate the research protagonism from the Researcher towards the Researched.
We will carry out the experience assessment with the following steps:

Individual Experiences Survey and Interviews	The survey design will target all active women collectively engaged on the Lusophone Wikimedia, but isolated individuals will also be taken into account. We expect 10 to 30 women collectively organized to answer the Primary Survey. The outreach will be drawn on-wiki, as well as off-wiki, via the established women networks. Participants must identify their username during the survey. Within these participants, we expect at least 50% to join an Interview, led by the grantee, via voluntary work. The interest of participation will be assessed during the survey. Non-organized women will be invited to answer a Secondary Survey. The outreach will be drawn exclusively on-wiki. We consider non-organized women who both identify themselves as women on pt.wikipedia, but do not have interest in engaging in a Wikimedia user group. We can’t predict the rate of participation. Participants must identify only their username. The project aims to maximize the range and diversity of outreached experiences. The target community (Lusophone Wikimedian Women) has an established off-wiki network, which will be used to outreach possible participants. On-wiki data-crawling and observation will also assist the outreach of isolated users, who express disinterest in working collectively.
Collective Experience Consensus Building	The grantee will coordinate two Online Meetings during Phases two and three, providing a space for collective discussion on the research preliminary results and hence build of social cohesion, achieve consensus, and draft an implementation plan. The participants of either the Primary Survey and Interview will be called to attend the meetings. In order to grant a safe space for women’s experience sharing. The Universal Code of Conduct and Friendly space policies will be observed during the meetings. The First Meeting will encompass the communication of the preliminary results and its discussion towards a consensus building; In the Second Meeting, we will communicate the reviewed results for collective ratification. Taking that into consideration, a collective exercise of strategic planning will take place.
Data Analysis and Draft Implementation Plan	Phase three will intersect with the other ones. On top of the aforementioned responsibilities (survey design, interviews leading, and meeting coordination), the grantee will execute all the operative tasks, from data analysis to the report draft, writing, revision and translation. The outcomes of these activities, includind the Draft Implementation Plan, will be peer-reviewed by participants of the research.
Participation Recognition	In order to recognize the researched people's efforts to be part of either the survey, interview, meetings or peer-review process, we expect to be able to provide: On the first level, a token of appreciation to all the participants of Primary and Secondary surveys, in the form of a freebie related to Gender Gap bridgework. On the second level, a more substantial recognition to the more involved participants, active agents in the consensus building or direct assistants of the research. The challenges posed to women's voluntary work on Wikimedia are well known. It is necessary to offer the means of participation to those who can’t afford to be present or participative solely on voluntary grounds during the research activities. This effort includes meal allowances (interview and meetings participants) and retribution payment (peer-review work, logistics management). Being a participant of either the Primary Survey, Interview, or Meeting is a requirement to apply for Recognition. Participants will be queried about the need for assistance during the Primary Survey.

Outcomes

After the activities are complete, the research final report will present, on Meta-wiki, the sum-up of the entire process along of consensus building and strategic planning; as well as a draft implementation plan of activities for the following year, around the targeted movement strategy initiative. As for the nature of the project, which aims to connect local and global discussions, the outcome will be presented both in Portuguese and English.

Please confirm below that you will be able to prepare a draft implementation plan document by the end of your grant:

• Yes

Research Roles and Budget

The grantee will coordinate and facilitate the project activities voluntarily, nonetheless, will be hired to execute the research professional work (qualitative data analysis, writing, and translation). Research assistance tasks, such as logistic management, minutes writing plus meeting transcription, and the peer-review work will be led by community members, via recognition.
The centrality of community work (both voluntary and recognized) will add-up skills during the project development. There will be a specific application for Participation Recognition. If more than one participant applies for the same task, the dispute will be solved by: (a) the preference of no ongoing paid activity related to the Wikimedia Foundation and its affiliates; (b) consensual discussion.

	Voluntary work	Monetary support
Grantee	Outreach: General communication Coordination: Project activities briefing, management, and debriefing. Facilitation: Interview leading and Meeting coordination; Graphic Project: Layout and diagramming of the final report booklet.	Survey Design: Primary and Secondary + Interview script; Data Analysis: Qualitative data systematization and analysis; Report Writing: Drafts and final version; Translation: Report English translation;
Participants	Participation: General participation on one or several project activities; Discussion: Consensus building; Review: On-wiki review of all content related to the research;	Logistics: Meal allowance plus freebies on both meetings (up to 60 people); Research assistance: Logistics management (1 voluntary); Minutes and transcription of meeting (2 voluntaries); Review of the final version of the Report (3 voluntaries); Review of the English Translation; (1 voluntary)

Grantee Paid Work Schedule

Task/week	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	recess	12	13	14	peer-review	15	16	17	18	19
Survey Design	x
Data Analysis		x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x		x
Report Writing								x	x	x	x		x	x	x		x	x
Translation																			x	x	x

From December 2022 to June 2023, 19 weeks of research work will be conducted by the Grantee, totalizing 240 hours at a $20/h rate.

Budget

• Research (time needed to design the survey, perform data analysis, and write/translate the report; total of 240 hours at a $20/h rate): $4800
• Research assistance (participation recognition of general writing, edition or review; or logistics management tasks; total of 7 voluntaries working on-demand): $1000
• Logistics (Meal allowances and freebies, including transnational shipping; total of 60 vacancies): $3000
• Online tools or services (subscription services for online meeting platforms): $80

TOTAL AMOUNT REQUESTED USD: $8880

Endorsements

An endorsement from community members (especially from outside your community) will be part of the considerations when reviewing your application. Community members are encouraged to endorse your project request here!

• an excellent initiative and a good opportunity to discuss gaps and how to solve them Alebasi24 (talk) 23:30, 15 September 2022 (UTC)
• I support this project because I am convinced that Lusophone Wikipedia needs this kind of initiative. As an editor I've experienced many situations where my editions were contested because they referred to Native People Women, revealing a strong male-white bias among some editors. ElisaFGarcia (talk) 19:20, 19 September 2022 (UTC)
• O Viés de gênero na Wikipédia é bem documentado na Wikipédia lusófona, o trabalho proposto vai proporcionar uma boa medida e subsidiar estratégias para contribuir com o fechamento dessas lacunas de gênero no movimento como um todo. BahYajé e Y4guarEtã (talk) 23:51, 19 September 2022 (UTC)
• Iniciativa de pesquisa que vai nos ajudar a entender e combater nossos vieses. Ixocactus (talk) 00:55, 20 September 2022 (UTC)
• This project is connected to a growing collective effort around gender and equity in the Wikimedia Movement in Portuguese. I strongly support this proposal. --Joalpe (talk) 01:23, 20 September 2022 (UTC)
• Strong support! This research will provide very much needed insights about our community to sustain flourishing initiatives on gender equity. EricaAzzellini (talk) 13:26, 20 September 2022 (UTC)
• Wiki needs a strategy to augment the diversity among wikimedians 2804:6580:82:3400:7D23:7AF9:2236:4BBD 15:57, 20 September 2022 (UTC)
• Strongly supported! Thank you very much for this initiative. Hedesta_D 13:06, 21 September 2022 (UTC)
• I fully support this initiative because it addresses one of the key issues that the Wikimedia movement is currently tackling. Stratokumulus ☁️ | TALK 14:28, 24 September 2022 (UTC)