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How can Wikipedia woo women editors?
BBC News ^ | 7 April 2014 | Lynsea Garrison

Posted on 04/07/2014 6:34:56 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican

Women make up only 9% of Wikipedia editors. Educators say raising that number is key to improving the online encyclopaedia, and have started campaigns to do just that.

At the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Depression-era artist Natalie Smith Henry's vivid depiction of a farm family hangs high on the wall.

But until recently, Henry didn't exist, at least not according to Wikipedia. Then Chelsea Tufarolo, a student at American University, decided to write her an article about her.

It was Tufarolo's first post on the world's largest knowledge-sharing resource.

Editors and activists are trying to address the root of what critics describe as a major information gap on Wikipedia by getting more women to post. Roughly 91% of Wikipedia's editors are men, according to a 2011 Wikimedia Foundation survey.

Wikipedia purports to capture the sum of the world's knowledge, says Sara Snyder, deputy chief of the Media and Technology Office at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

But "it's not accurate to call it the world's knowledge if it's just half the population's knowledge," she says.

Wikipedia hosts 4.4 million articles and consistently ranks as one of the top 10 most-visited websites in the world. Yet a Wikimedia study in 2011 revealed a fairly uniform picture of the writers behind Wikipedia - the average Wikipedian is a white, educated, computer-savvy man who lives in the US or Europe.

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: academicbias; feminism; herstory; revisionisthistory; waronhistory; waronwomenmeme; wikibias; wikipedia
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1 posted on 04/07/2014 6:34:56 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: MinorityRepublican

Pure Sexism.


2 posted on 04/07/2014 6:36:02 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: MinorityRepublican

why do they have to? so what? they don’t want to spend time doing that. what the hell is wrong with them doing what they want online?


3 posted on 04/07/2014 6:36:28 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Paladin2

I am glad they are addressing this issue, this keeps me up all night worrying about it.


4 posted on 04/07/2014 6:36:53 PM PDT by Perdogg (Ted Cruz-Rand Paul 2016)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Gee I thought 100% of Wiki’s editors were liberal pussy’s.


5 posted on 04/07/2014 6:38:06 PM PDT by mylife (Ted Cruz understands the law, and is not afraid of the unlawful.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

How does Wikipedia know the sex of its editors?


6 posted on 04/07/2014 6:38:19 PM PDT by Repeal 16-17 (Let me know when the Shooting starts.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Send money? No? How about some lovely flowers?


7 posted on 04/07/2014 6:38:34 PM PDT by jocon307
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To: Perdogg
What about transgender authors/editors?

QueerGender?

8 posted on 04/07/2014 6:39:20 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: MinorityRepublican

They can form a Herpedia. What’s stopping them?


9 posted on 04/07/2014 6:39:51 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: Repeal 16-17
"How does Wikipedia know the sex of its editors? "

Most just can't keep it to themselves.

Maybe Wiki needs to set up a gay editors' Bar, with free drinks.

10 posted on 04/07/2014 6:41:05 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: Perdogg

Would you react differently to a Wiki entry if you knew the author was a woman? If so - who cares?


11 posted on 04/07/2014 6:41:28 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Make Wikipedia, about feelings


12 posted on 04/07/2014 6:42:06 PM PDT by ImJustAnotherOkie (zerogottago)
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To: Repeal 16-17

Like I ever cared about the internal plumbing of an author. Why is that so important to man-hating feminists?


13 posted on 04/07/2014 6:42:43 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: MinorityRepublican
Educators say raising that number is key to improving the online encyclopedia,

Surely they aren't inferring that men and women are different, are they?

14 posted on 04/07/2014 6:43:28 PM PDT by Balding_Eagle (Want to keep your doctor? Remove your Democrat Senator.)
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To: Balding_Eagle

Does it really matter? It doesn’t erase the fact world history was made by men.


15 posted on 04/07/2014 6:44:31 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: MinorityRepublican

People are going to do what they are going to do.

Absent specific measurable incentives, people do what they want. That is what drives lefties batty. They think people should behave according to rules.

It is why they don’t even bother to make cRap movies anymore. Whites won’t watch them and Blacks just shoot each other in the theater lobby.

Guys post to Wikipedia, chicks don’t. What are you gonna do about it?


16 posted on 04/07/2014 6:44:47 PM PDT by freedumb2003 (Fight Tapinophobia in all its forms! Do not submit to arduus privilege.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

I’m sure Obama will pick up a phone and pen and make it right.


17 posted on 04/07/2014 6:44:53 PM PDT by teacherwoes (Alethephobia-fear of hearing the truth)
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To: MinorityRepublican

Free tampon coupons?


18 posted on 04/07/2014 6:45:35 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans!)
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To: Balding_Eagle
Surely they aren't inferring that men and women are different, are they?

In being politically correct, Wikipedia managed to be politically incorrect. Hilarious.

19 posted on 04/07/2014 6:46:09 PM PDT by Repeal 16-17 (Let me know when the Shooting starts.)
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To: freedumb2003

How far should gender balance be struck? Across ALL articles or only on those that interest women?


20 posted on 04/07/2014 6:46:49 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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