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.
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
[edit]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.[1] Up to this date, Lusophone women have not managed to establish a transnational user group.[2] 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.[3]
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
[edit]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
[edit]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
[edit]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:
|
PHASE 2: Collective Experience Consensus and Movement Strategy Implementation |
The previous outputs, the Individual Experiences Survey outcome, will guide the collective reflection on:
|
The collective discussion should incorporate the strategic exercise of building consensus targeting future actions
|
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
[edit]Program
[edit]The project will be conducted from 15 December 2023 to 15 June 2023, with a recess regarding International Women's Day's activities.
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
[edit]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
[edit]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
[edit]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
[edit]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.
|
---|---|
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.
|
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:
|
Outcomes
[edit]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
[edit]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. |
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:
|
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
[edit]- 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
[edit]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. HedestaD 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)
Notes
[edit]- ↑ Brazilians are majority in the Lusophone Wikimedian movement. The symbiotic relation between Brazilian women and the Portuguese community allows us to summarize Lusophone women as majorly Global Southerners. Other Lusophone cultures (Asian and African) are still underrepresented in our movement.
- ↑ The creation of such user group is a work in progress since the Wikimedia’s Women-user Training, organized by Wiki Movimento Brasil, in 2021. This has also been a topic of discussion during the women’s gathering at Wikicon Brazil 2022.
- ↑ Its remarkable how Art+Feminism, e.g., managed to research the reliable source (WP:RS) guidelines and related content policies on English, French, and Spanish Wikipedias. The Lusophone women wondered what would be the similarities and disparities, if we were to execute the same research.