Once at an Ani diFranco concert (that my husband took me to) I saw
several men wearing a t-shirt that said This is what a feminist looks
like. Situations like that have helped me get over my anti-men attitude
that was a reaction to an early indoctrination of fundamentalist
teaching that women must submit to their husbands, and now I believe
that we as humans need to protect the rights of other individuals. So I
vote against limiting the conversation to women, because can only arrive
at the most effective solution through diversity in the dialogue. If the
ones advocating for women's involvement in Wikipedia are men, then
rather than silence them, maybe women should speak up too. This list is
a direct invitation for women to voice the issues they have on Wikipedia
and many have done that. It seems to me that the men who are active on
this list join the conversation in an effort to find out what issues
female editors face and how they can help.
thanks for reading my 2 cents, Amy
On 3/14/11 5:14 PM, Laura Hale wrote:
I'd like to propose that the gendergap be forked. The main list would
be for women and transgendered who want to work together to help
increase female participation on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia
Foundation projects. The fork list would be for male allies who want
to work towards a similar goal.
This proposal is based on two things. The first idea is that women
themselves can probably best identify areas and needs regarding female
participation on Wikipedia. Assuming good faith, male contributors on
the list probably do really want to help work towards this goal and
have women's best interest at heart and want to see improvement in the
total number of female participants on the wiki... but there has been
a fairly sizable amount of research in the NGO sector in countries
like Africa, where outside organisations were not as effective as
local organisations at identifying local problems and creating
solutions that work best in a local context. In this situation, women
and transgenders would be the local community and men would be the
international NGOs.
The second issue is that at the moment, men appear to be dominating
the conversation. (This may not by correct and I apologise if I am
wrong. I'm making this assumption based on the names of participants
involved.) Men are posting content with suggestions for women. Men
are debating if women find the term dick offensive. Men aren't asking
the women on the list if they have resources that they think other
women might find useful. Men do not appear to be asking the women on
the list what their opinions are regarding the use of the term dick
and if women on the list find the term offensive. Rather, it appears
that men are speaking for women without their consent.
I'd really like men to continue to be involved. I think the best way
would be for the creation of a sublist, specifically created for men.
As allies, they can discuss how to improve the rate of women's
involvement. As men on that strategies sublist about the creation and
implementation of solutions to increase female participation, the
information can be summarised and sent to some one else off list to be
posted to the main list.
I just worry at the moment that the heavy male involvement is
intimidating and keeping some women from participating.
Sincerely,
Laura Hale
--
twitter: purplepopple
blog: ozziesport.com http://ozziesport.com
___
Gendergap mailing list
Gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap
___
Gendergap mailing list
Gendergap@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/gendergap
