Gender Bias On Wikipedia
Gender Bias On Wikipedia
Gender Bias On Wikipedia
Contents
Research findings and issues
Possible causes
Reactions
Efforts to address gender gaps
See also
References
Further reading
Media coverage
Research and advice
External links
In the English Wikipedia and five other language editions that were studied by researchers, the ratio of articles
about women to articles about men was higher than in three other databases. However, analysis with
computational linguistics concluded that the way women and men are described in articles demonstrates bias,
with articles about women more likely to use more words relating to gender and family. The researchers
believe that this is a sign Wikipedia editors consider male the "null gender" (in other words, that "male" is
assumed unless otherwise specified, an example of male as norm).[19] Another critique of Wikipedia's
approach, from a 2014 Guardian editorial, is that it has difficulty making judgments about "what matters". To
illustrate this point they noted that the page listing pornographic actresses was better organized than the page
listing women writers.[20]
Comparison of results for the proportion of Wikipedia readers and editors from the nationally representative Pew survey and the WMF/UNU-
MERIT survey (UNU) for a series of dichotomous variables in both surveys. Adjusted numbers for editors assume that response bias for
editors is identical to observed response bias for readers and, in the rightmost column, that bias is stable for editors outside the United States.
Table reproduced from [14] .
In 2010, United Nations University and UNU-MERIT jointly presented an overview of the results of a global
Wikipedia survey.[21] A 30 January 2011, New York Times article cited this Wikimedia Foundation
collaboration, which indicated that fewer than 13% of contributors to Wikipedia are women. Sue Gardner,
then executive director of the foundation, said that increasing diversity was about making the encyclopedia "as
good as it could be". Factors the article cited as possibly discouraging women from editing included the
"obsessive fact-loving realm", associations with the "hard-driving hacker crowd", and the necessity to be
"open to very difficult, high-conflict people, even misogynists".[15] In 2013, the results of the survey were
challenged by Hill and Shaw using corrective estimation techniques to suggest upward corrections to the data
from the survey and to recommend updates to the statistics being surveyed, giving 22.7% for adult US female
editors and 16.1% overall.[14]
In February 2011, The New York Times followed up with a series of opinions on the subject under the banner,
"Where Are the Women in Wikipedia?"[22] Susan C. Herring, a professor of information science and
linguistics, said that she was not surprised by the Wikipedia contributors' gender gap. She said that the often
contentious nature of Wikipedia article "talk" pages, where article content is discussed, is unappealing to many
women, "if not outright intimidating".[23] Joseph M. Reagle reacted similarly, saying that the combination of a
"culture of hacker elitism", combined with the disproportionate effect of high-conflict members (a minority) on
the community atmosphere, can make it unappealing. He said, "the ideology and rhetoric of freedom and
openness can then be used (a) to suppress concerns about inappropriate or offensive speech as "censorship"
and (b) to rationalize low female participation as simply a matter of their personal preference and choice."[24]
Justine Cassell said that although women are as knowledgeable as men, and as able to defend their point of
view, "it is still the case in American society that debate, contention, and vigorous defense of one’s position is
often still seen as a male stance, and women’s use of these speech styles can call forth negative
evaluations."[25]
The International Journal of Communication published research by Reagle and Lauren Rhue that examined
the coverage, gender representation, and article length of thousands of biographical subjects on the English-
language Wikipedia and the online Encyclopædia Britannica. They concluded that Wikipedia provided better
coverage and longer articles in general, that Wikipedia typically has more articles on women than Britannica in
absolute terms, but Wikipedia articles on women were more likely to be missing than articles on men relative
to Britannica. That is, Wikipedia dominated Britannica in biographical coverage, but more so when it comes
to men. Similarly, one might say that Britannica is more balanced in whom it neglects to cover than Wikipedia.
For both reference works, article length did not consistently differ by gender.[26]
In April 2011, the Wikimedia Foundation conducted its first semi-annual Wikipedia survey. It suggested that
9% of Wikipedia editors are women. It also reported, "Contrary to the perception of some, our data shows that
very few women editors feel like they have been harassed, and very few feel Wikipedia is a sexualized
environment."[27] However, an October 2011 paper at the International Symposium on Wikis and Open
Collaboration found evidence that suggested that Wikipedia may have "a culture that may be resistant to
female participation".[28]
A study published in 2014 found that there is also an "Internet skills gap" with regard to Wikipedia editors.
The authors found that the most likely Wikipedia contributors are high-skilled men and that there is no gender
gap among low-skilled editors, and concluded that the "skills gap" exacerbates the gender gap among
editors.[29] During 2010–14, women made up 61% of participants of the college courses arranged by the Wiki
Education Foundation program that included editing Wikipedia as part of the curriculum. Their contributions
were found to shift the Wikipedia content from pop-culture and STEM towards social sciences and
humanities.[30]
In 2016, Wagner et al.[31] found that gender inequality manifests itself in Wikipedia's biographical content in
multiple ways, including unequal thresholds for including an article on the person, topical bias, linguistic bias,
and structural inequalities. The authors found that women with biographies on Wikipedia are slightly more
notable than men on Wikipedia, and proposed three possible explanations for future research: 1) that editors
are more likely to write about their own gender, 2) that men with are more likely to create articles about
themselves, and 3) that external sources make women less visible.[31] As for topical bias, biographies about
women tend to focus more on family-, gender-, and relationship-related topics. This is especially true for
biographies of women born before 1900. The authors also found structural differences in terms of meta-data
and hyperlinks, which have consequences for information-seeking activities.
A 2017 study found that women participating in an experiment by editing a Wikipedia-like site tended to view
other editors as male, and to view their responses as more critical than if the other editor was gender-neutral.
The study concluded that:[32]
...visible female editors on Wikipedia and broader encouragement of the use of constructive
feedback may begin to alleviate the Wikipedia gender gap. Furthermore, the relatively high
proportion of anonymous editors may exacerbate the Wikipedia gender gap, as anonymity may
often be perceived as male and more critical.
A study by Ford and Wajcman observes that research on the gender bias continues to frame the problem as a
deficit in women. In contrast, their central argument states that infrastructure studies in feminist technoscience
allows the gender analysis to be taken to a further level. It looks at three issues within the infrastructure:
content policies, software, and the legalistic framework of operation. It suggests that progress can be made
through altering that culture of knowledge production through encouraging alternate knowledge, reducing the
technical barriers to editing, and addressing the complexity of Wikipedia policies.[33]
In February 2018, in the Pipeline of Online Participation Inequalities, Shaw and Hargittai concluded from their
studies that to solve the problems of participation inequality including gender bias requires a broader focus on
subjects other than inequality.[34] They recommended a focus on encouraging participants of all educational
backgrounds, skill levels, and age groups will help Wikipedia to improve. They recommended further that
informing more women that Wikipedia is free to edit and open to everyone is critical in eliminating gender
bias.[34]
In March 2018, mathematician Marie A. Vitulli wrote in Notices of the American Mathematical Society, "The
percentage of women editors on Wikipedia remains dismally low."[35]
In October 2018, when Donna Strickland won a Nobel Prize in Physics, numerous write-ups mentioned that
she did not previously have a Wikipedia page. A draft had been submitted, but was rejected for not
demonstrating "significant coverage (not just passing mentions) about the subject".[36][37][38]
In 2014, Noopur Raval, a PhD candidate at UC Irvine, wrote in The Encyclopedia Must Fail!- Notes on
Queering Wikipedia, that "making a platform open access does not automatically translate to equality of
participation, ease of access, or cultural acceptance of the medium."[39] In 2017, researchers Matthew A.
Vetter and Keon Mandell Pettiway explain that the white, cis-gendered male dominance amongst Wikipedia
editors has led to the "erasure of non-normative gender and sexual identities," in addition to cis-gendered
females. The "androcentric and heteronormative discourses" of Wikipedia editing insufficiently allow
"marginalized gender and sexual identities to take part in language use and the construction of knowledge."[40]
Possible causes
Several causes for this gender disparity have been suggested. A 2010
study revealed a Wikipedia female participation rate of 13 percent,
observed to be close to the 15 percent overall female participation rate
of other "public thought-leadership forums".[15][42] Wikipedia
research fellow Sarah Stierch acknowledged that it is "fairly
common" for Wikipedia contributors to remain gender-
anonymous.[43] A perceived unwelcoming culture and tolerance of
violent and abusive language are also reasons put forth for the gender
gap.[44] According to a 2013 study,[45] another cause of the gender Former Wikimedia Foundation
gap in Wikipedia is the failure to attract and retain female editors, executive director Sue Gardner
resulting in a negative impact on Wikipedia's coverage. As well, provided nine reasons, offered by
female Wikipedia editors, "Why
Wikipedia "...editors that publicly identify as women face harassment"
Women Don't Edit Wikipedia."[41]
from other Wikipedia editors.[46]
Though the proportion of female readership to male readership on Wikipedia is roughly equal (47%), women
are less likely to convert themselves to editors (16%). Several studies suggest that there may be a formed
culture in Wikipedia that discourages women from participating.[47][48] Lam et al. link this culture due to a
disparity in male-to-female centric topics represented and edited, the tendency for female users to be more
active in the social and community aspects of Wikipedia, an increased likelihood that edits by new female
editors are reverted, and/or that articles with high proportions of female editors are more contentious.[47]
Collier and Bear in 2012 summarized the reason for working barriers of women in Wikipedia in three words:
conflict, criticism and confidence. Conflict means online harassment, trolling and competition which women
generally do not like; Criticism refers to women's unwillingness to edit someone else's work and to let their
work be edited by someone else; Confidence shows that women are often not too confident about their own
expertise and ability in editing and contributing to a certain work.[48] Wikipedia's free to edit policy gives
Internet users an open platform, while also unconsciously breeding a competitive and critical environment that
limits women's incentives to participate.
Through examining the power infrastructure of Wikipedia, Ford and Wajcman pointed out another cause that
may reinforce Wikipedia's gender bias. Editing on Wikipedia requires "particular forms of sociotechnical
expertise and authority that constitute the knowledge or epistemological infrastructure of Wikipedia".[49]
People who are equipped with this expertise and skill are considered more likely to reach positions with power
in Wikipedia. These are proposed to be predominantly men.
Studies have also considered the gender bias in Wikipedia from a historical perspective. Konieczny and Klein
indicated that Wikipedia is just a part of our biased society which has a long history of gender inequality.[50]
As Wikipedia records daily activities by individual editors, it serves as both "a reflection of the world" and "a
tool used to produce our world".[50]
Reactions
The Wikimedia Foundation has officially held, since at least 2011 when Gardner was executive director, that
gender bias exists in the project. It has made some attempts to address it but Gardner has expressed frustration
with the degree of success achieved. She has also noted that "in the very limited leisure time women had, they
tended to be more involved in social activities instead of editing Wikipedia. 'Women see technology more as a
tool they use to accomplish tasks, rather than something fun in itself.' "[51][52] In 2011, the Foundation set a
target of having 25 percent of its contributors identifying as female by 2015.[15] In August 2013, Gardner said,
"I didn't solve it. We didn't solve it. The Wikimedia Foundation didn't solve it. The solution won't come from
the Wikimedia Foundation."[51]
Writing for Slate in 2011, Heather Mac Donald called Wikipedia's gender imbalance a "non-problem in search
of a misguided solution." Mac Donald asserted, "The most straightforward explanation for the differing rates
of participation in Wikipedia—and the one that conforms to everyday experience—is that, on average, males
and females have different interests and preferred ways of spending their free time."[53]
In August 2014, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales announced in a BBC interview the Wikimedia
Foundation's plans for "doubling down" on the gender content gap at Wikipedia. Wales said the Foundation
would be open to more outreach and more software changes.[54]
In 2013, FemTechNet launched "Wikistorming" as a project that offers feminist scholarship and encourages
Wikipedia editing as part of school and college teaching.[59]
In July 2014, the National Science Foundation announced that it would spend $200,000 to study systemic
gender bias on Wikipedia.[60]
An early-2015 initiative to create a "women-only" space for Wikipedia editors was strongly opposed by
Wikipedians.[61]
In the summer of 2015, the WikiProject Women in Red was launched on the English-language version of
Wikipedia, focusing on the creation of new articles about notable women.[62] Mainly through its monthly
virtual editathons, Women in Red encourages editors to participate in extending Wikipedia's coverage.[63][64]
Thanks in part to the efforts of this project, by June 2018 some 17,000 new women's biographies had been
added to Wikipedia.[65]
In 2017, Wikimedia Foundation put a funding of $500,000 in building a more encouraging environment for
diversity on Wikipedia.[66]
Many Wikiprojects are committed to promoting editors' contribution on gender and women studies, which
include "WikiProject women, WikiProject feminism, WikiProject gender studies, and the WikiProject
countering systemic bias/gender gap task force".[67]
Expanding beyond the male/female gender binary, Wikiproject LGBT creates a space for "re/writing the
inclusion and representation of LGBTQ culture into Wikipedia mainspace."[40]
In 2015, Jennifer C. Edwards, history department chairperson at Manhattan College, explained that
educational institutions can use Wikipedia assignments such as encyclopedia’s gender gap analysis and
coverage of female topics to inspire students to alter the current gender imbalance.[68]
See also
Gender-neutral language on Wikipedia
Racial bias on Wikipedia
Second-generation gender bias
Systemic bias in Wikipedia
Women in Red
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Edwards, Jennifer C. "Wiki Women: Bringing Women Into Wikipedia through Activism and
Pedagogy." The History Teacher, vol. 48, no. 3, 2015, pp. 409–436., online (http://www.jstor.org/
stable/24810523)
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External links
Category:Gender gap (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Gender_gap) at Wikimedia
Meta-Wiki
Strangers in a seemingly open-to-all website. A research on the gender gap, by Dr. Shlomit Lir
(https://www.academia.edu/41380442/Strangers_in_a_seemingly_open-to-all_website_the_ge
nder_bias_in_Wikipedia)
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