Translations:Course-v1:edz+11+2023 SP/en/block-v1:edz+11+2023 SP+type@html+block@7f296602bc20486c8882d6656f2a8c87/content/en
<img height="66" width="54" src="/asset-v1:Wikimedia-Foundation+WMF_OL101+2022+type@asset+block@Wikimedia_Brand_Guidelines_Update_2022_-_PuzzleGlobe.svg" alt="" style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-weight: bold; white-space-collapse: preserve;" /> How has the gender gap been studied?
<article class="xblock-render" lang="en" style="margin: 10px; padding: 10px; border: 1px solid #0075b4; border-radius: 4px;">
The <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Gender_gap" target="[object Object]">Wikimedia Gender Gap</a> was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_bias_on_Wikipedia" target="[object Object]">first documented in 2010</a> when one of the first global surveys indicated that only 13% of contributors to the projects were women.
In 2017 the Wikimedia Foundation and Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight released a<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Gender_equity_report_2018" target="[object Object]"> Gender Equity Report</a>, which highlighted the achievements, best practices, and barriers for gender equity work in the Wikimedia context, from the perspectives of some of the most active leaders in the movement.
The latest data on the topic indicates that:
- content disparity: around <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Developing_Metrics_for_Content_Gaps_(Knowledge_Gaps_Taxonomy)/Visualizations#Gender_Gap" target="[object Object]">80% of articles </a>about people on large Wikipedias are about men
- readership disparity: <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Characterizing_Wikipedia_Reader_Behaviour/Demographics_and_Wikipedia_use_cases#Pageviews_as_a_proxy_for_demand" target="[object Object]">72% of pageviews </a>are generated by men
- contributors disparity: <a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Insights/Community_Insights_2023_Report#Gender" target="[object Object]">80% of active editors </a>self-identify as men
Where do these gaps come from?
These data points reflect the inequities of the world: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_knowledge?wprov=wppw2" target="[object Object]">a history of knowledge perspective </a>shows us that historically, women have not been considered important enough to be documented, referenced or visible for their impacts in society. This results in challenges in Wikipedia for notability and verifiability, for example, on who is deemed important<a href="https://www.historians.org/research-and-publications/perspectives-on-history/september-2022/where-are-the-women-past-choices-that-shaped-the-historical-record" target="[object Object]"> enough to be represented in the historical record and in which ways,</a> to a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-use_research?wprov=wppw2" target="[object Object]">time-use perspectiv</a>e on who has the time to devote to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/14614448211023772" target="[object Object]">reading, writing and editing the sum of all knowledge</a>.
For women and non-binary people outside of North America and Europe, this challenge is especially pronounced because of more systematic barriers to history and documentation. Intersectionality helps us to frame which women and non-binary people are included in the 13% of active editors, 7% of admins and why.
</article>