Women and Wikipedia: Perspectives on the gender gap, harassment, and the Gamergate controversy

Women and Wikipedia:

Perspectives on the

gender gap, harassment,

and the Gamergate

controversy

By Su-Laine Yeo Brodsky

For a Capilano University panel discussion on online

gendered harassment, March 2015

Part 1: Female Participation and the Wikipedia

Gender Gap

The Encyclopedia Anyone Can Edit

• Writers, a.k.a. editors,

are volunteers

Image: xkcd.com, distributed under a CC BY-NC 2.5 license

The gender

gap: 87-90%

male

What

people

do

articles

cover?

English Wikipediafrom “Sex ratios in Wikipedia, Wikidata, and VIAF”. Max Klein, 2013 hangingtogether.org

Wikipedia’s article on the human breast has 4634

words.* Here are the number of words on various

aspects of the topic:

• Appearance, size, shape: 3,218

• Plastic surgery: 625

• Puberty: 176

• Female sexual pleasure: 175

• Cancer: 60

• Breastfeeding (other than effects of surgery on

breastfeeding): 53

*As of March 6, 2015, excluding citations

Whose ideas do

articles cover?

College of Ontario

Universities,

Registrants by

program and

gender, 2012

We don’t know why, but perhaps…

• Editing Wikipedia requires a lot of self-confidence

• Culture is unpleasant / conflict-oriented / sexist

• Some editors become seriously harassed in real

life

• Fewer opportunities for developing social

relationships

• User interface is unappealing

Part II: Harassment of Wikipedia

Editors

Why Harass Wikipedia Editors?

Often related to disputes over

article content:

(speculative, based on

anecdotes)

• Harasser feels an article is

damaging to their reputation or

privacy

• Harasser believes editor treated

them unfairly in a dispute on

Wikipedia

Severe Harassment of Wikipedia Editors

• Outing/doxxing

• Attack pages / slander

• Contacting employers

• Litigation

Encyclopedia Dramatica, an attack site

Responding to Harassment

Wikipedia does:

• Stop / prevent the use of

Wikipedia as a platform for

blatant harassment

Wikipedia and the Wikimedia

Foundation do not:

• Respond to or help with

harassment that takes place

outside of Wikipedia

• Encourage open, public

discussion of harassment

Part III: Gamergate

Media reports,

Jan/Feb 2015

• “The Gamergaters get to rewrite their own

page… Feminists are to be purged en bloc

from the encyclopedia” - The Guardian

• “Wikipedia tacitly endorses GamerGate by

blocking its opponents from editing gender-

related articles” - Pando

• “If… a racist campaign in support of

eugenics flooded the site, there's not much

Wikipedia could do about it.” - Gawker

Dispute Resolution at Wikipedia

Discussion on article

“Talk” page

Request for Comment process

Mediation

Block accounts for

blatant infractions

Arbitration

Committee Case

Ban users for

less-blatant infractions

Nov 2014 - Jan 2015

Anti-Gamergate Editors Sanctioned for Violating

“Conduct” Policies

• Don’t edit-war

• Don’t lose your temper

• Focus discussion on how to

improve the article, using reliable

sources

• Don’t use Wikipedia as a

soapbox or battleground

Wikipedia is

used to handling

a co-ordinated

flood of

problematic

edits

“Feminists are to be purged en

bloc from the encyclopedia” - ?

Sarah Stierch

After reviewing the Arbcom case, I don't even

know who got the idea that any of the

contributing editors are feminist, per se. (Even

though I like to think everyone is a feminist!)

Laura Hale

The names of the people are not people I would

consider known feminist and outside TaraInDC,

none identify as female.

Carol Moore

The editor who called them feminists obviously

was off base

- Wikipedia Women, Facebook

Where does the “feminist purge” meme come

from?

Mark Bernstein

Who speaks for the

women of Wikipedia?

Not the women of

Wikipedia.- Wikipedia editor Adrianne Wadewitz,

2013

– Wikipedia editor SinglePurposePartier

“… Those who have tried to keep [the Gamergate] campaign

from infecting Wikipedia have become subject to harassment

themselves… There were organized campaigns against

regular editors of this project… vilified across the darkest

corners of the web.”

Silencing is

happening…

just not how

you think

• Gamergate has no special ability

to influence article content on

Wikipedia

• Gamergate has not triggered a

purge of women or feminists from

Wikipedia

• Gamergate has harassed its

opponents who are Wikipedia

volunteers

Thank you!

Su-Laine Yeo Brodsky

Twitter: @sulaineyeo

www.interelement.ca