In the next two weeks, candidates will be nominating themselves to become stewards. Right now, of 31 stewards, only one self-identifies as a woman. There was a point in time where this ratio was much higher (I can think of several other women from around the world who have fulfilled this role), but in recent years the majority of new stewards have come from the group of global administrators and vandal-fighters, with those who vote tending to focus on those "skills". History of leadership and stewardship (in the true sense of the word), once valued, has come to be a genuine challenge for new candidates, particularly if they've upset someone along the way.
There is now a more common focus on contributions across a broad array of projects (whether or not the user can communicate in the language of the project). The overwhelming majority of stewards today come from European countries. I draw this to your attention because it would be good to see a much more diverse group of stewards in the future. Although many stewards will say that the role has little authority and power, that it is only intended to act on the requests of various communities, the facts are quite different. Right now, stewards are playing *the* crucial role in determining which of several users with the same username will get to keep that name globally, for example. So....some of you may want to consider a candidacy (I can think of a few on this list who stand a good chance of success). And all of us should seriously consider participating actively in these elections[1] and the annual review of current stewards [2] that happens concurrently. Risker/Anne [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Stewards/Elections_2015 [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Stewards/Confirm/2015
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