On Wed, Sep 7, 2011 at 13:32, Erin O'Rourke <gwyther...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hello all, > > I've been on the gender gap mailing list for a number of months now but have > yet to introduce myself. While I tend to default to Wikipedia often when I > want quick information on something, I never considered the possibility of > editing until reading about the gender gap issue. It was at this point I > came across the African American Woman Suffrage Movement article and tried > to clean it up a bit. While rewarding, I didn't have the sources to try and > expand on it but I hope to do so in the future. > > While to some extent I subscribe to the idea that there are many women out > there who fall into the category of "not having the free time", I fall into > a much different category that was discussed a few months back (and which I > only read yesterday - I tend to let the digests pile up and read them all at > once!!): Women that are technically savvy and do have some free time. At > times I am an avid blogger and the Wikipedia technology is easy and fun for > me to learn as I go. I often have a number of things I need to or want to do > with my time and prioritize accordingly. Wikipedia is low in that list of > priorities. > > I have a hard time articulating why that is. To some degree it is both > function and attitude. After editing the Suffrage Movement article, I found > myself wanting to continue contributing. Yet the time I allotted to > Wikipedia really only allowed me to do things such as suggesting new > articles or categorizing their class/importance for something like the > Women's History project. As Sydney (I believe) mentioned a few emails back > about cleaning up the commons, it felt like such an endless, tedious task > and eventually I lost interest altogether. > > As for attitude, I don't mean to insult when I say this, merely to explain. > When I was in graduate school I was frustrated with the idea that I should > be editing Wikipedia - here is a site that seems "a joke" in academic > circles (the ever so common "Wikipedia is NOT a source!!" from professors, > exasperated that we should know better), I am steeped in information that > actually "matters" every day, why in the heck am I going to bother with > Wikipedia?! Given the sheer amount of use Wikipedia gets not only in > general, but from me as well illustrates how much it truly matters and why > it's all the more important to make sure information is portrayed in an > accurate manner. In addition, the greater interest academics are actually > taking in Wikipedia proves me wrong as well. > > LASTLY, in terms of having a more diverse representation of female bodies - > one might look up pictures of the World Naked Bike Ride. It was fascinating > to me to see all different shapes and sizes, as bodies in the US media are > often airbrushed paragons of "perfection." I don't know anything about > rights to photos and such though I have a (male) friend who participates > every year and is quite open with the pictures he appears in. If permission > is necessary, perhaps the women who have participated would be quite happy > to oblige. > > I am going to Urubamba, Peru at the end of the month for 3 months and I see > that the article could use some work. I look forward to improving it!! I > appreciate the care that those of you on this list put into trying to remedy > the gender gap, as well as examining whether topics on Wikipedia are being > skewed to reflect a patriarchal bias. > > Erin (User Gwytherinn) > > -- > Erin O'Rourke > http://erin-orourke.com >
Hello Erin, thanks for that introduction, and welcome to the mailing list! :) Sarah _______________________________________________ Gendergap mailing list Gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap