The debate over the extent to which the design and infrastructure of the Web privileges certain demographic groups is not new, but, nevertheless, continues to be important. Perhaps, most attention has been given to the way traditional gender hierarchies are reproduced by the masculine infrastructure of the Web. Cyborgology editor Nathan Jurgenson, for example, has previously covered the Wikipedia’s bias toward masculine language. Saskia Sassen warns “it may be naïve to overestimate the emancipatory power of cyberspace in terms of its capacity to neutralize gender distinctions.”
In an NPR interview this week, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales addressed the masculine bias of Wikipedia:
“The average age [of Wikipedia users] is around 26,” Wales says. “We’re about 85 percent male, which is something we’d like to change in the future. We think that’s because of our tech-geek roots.”
While the organization’s acknowledgment that the gender disparity on Wikipedia is promising, Wales seems to address the need for making the site more inclusive to women only from a marketing perspective. Sociologically speaking, there is a far more important reason to attract women to Wikipedia. Feminist sociologists have long argued the the types of knowledges that men and women produce are fundamentally different (in no small part due to their distinct social experiences). As Wikipedia is increasingly accepted as the primary source of collected human wisdom, it is important to ask whose voices are being left out, and as such, what ways of thinking are absent in the conversation. For Wikipedia, design and accessibility are not merely questions of customer service, but, in fact, have profound epistemological implications.
Comments 4
K. E. — January 13, 2011
I think 26-year-olds tend to be fairly equal in the tech knowledge, especially to the extent one needs in order to edit wikipedia. I agree it has to do with socialization, but I think it has more to do with who thinks ze is an authority. There have been studies about men being more likely to apply for a job that they assume they are qualified for when women who are just as or more qualified don't apply under the assumption they are not qualified enough. I'm sure there have been other studies about similar ideas. In the spirit of wikipedia [citation needed].
However, I would think this has a much larger impact on why women are such a minority on Wikipedia than its "tech-geek roots". One only needs to look at the large chunk of the smaller, more specialised wikis out there to see that women are actually quite familiar with the underlying structure of Wikipedia.
who does the work of creating pages in wikipedia? « homofilly — January 13, 2011
[...] this is just the tip of the iceberg. [...]
politux — January 13, 2011
No one is stopping women from editing Wikipedia. If they want equal representation they should get to work...
Mazarine — February 8, 2011
Hey Politux,
I think you need to look at the white male privilege meme a few more times.
Wikipedia is a microcosm of the misogynist macrocosm.
It cannot help but be a mirror, of the internet, which is deeply disrespectful to women.
mazarine