Wikipedia: It's a Man's World

Sady Doyle:

A recent study, reported on the Wall Street Journal's blog, reveals that only 13 percent of Wikipedia's contributors are female. This information manages, somehow, to be both unsurprising -- Wikipedia feels like a guy thing, somehow -- and fascinating, for raising questions about how gender informs the largely anonymous realm of Internet discussion.

One-quarter of respondents who did not contribute said that they hadn't done so because they were "afraid of getting 'in trouble'"

Wikipedia aims for democratic participation: Anyone can contribute, and everyone's contributions are subject to correction by other users. Its subject matter isn't implicitly gendered: It covers almost any topic that's relevant enough to warrant an entry. But, in practice, Wikipedia -- like any other established subculture, offline or on -- rewards some contributors more than others. The site, by its nature, favors people with an intense interest in detail and a high tolerance for debate. (Choosing a discussion page at random, one learns that the entry on frogs once drew critical attention for including a picture of toads. It got slightly heated.)

Posted by Jim Zellmer at September 6, 2009 1:03 AM
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