User:GRuban/Gender Gap

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Attempting to answer a question asked on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Countering systemic bias/Gender gap task force - Do women write about women? Let's see. Here is Wikipedia:Featured articles#Literature and theatre biographies and the name of the editor who nominated each for FA, with (apparent) gender of each, determined either by name, or user preferences via Template:he or she, where set.

  1. , male; User:Scartol, male. (Eric S. Piotrowski)
  2. , female; User: Christine (Figureskatingfan), female (she)
  3. James Robert Baker, male; User:Jeffpw, male
  4. , male; User:Scartol, male.
  5. , female; User:Moni3, female (she)
  6. , female; User:Celithemis, no guess (he or she)
  7. , female; User:Eric Corbett, male
  8. , male; User:Daniel.odonnell, male
  9. , male; User:Brianboulton, male
  10. , female; User:Ragesoss, male
  11. , male; User:Qp10qp, no guess (he or she)
  12. , male; User:Geogre, male
  13. , male; User:Brianboulton, male
  14. , male; User:Ssilvers, no guess (he or she)
  15. , male; User:Yllosubmarine, female (María)
  16. , male; User:PRiis, male (Peter Riis)
  17. , female; User:Yllosubmarine, female
  18. , male; User:Markalexander100, aka User:Henry Flower, male
  19. , male; User:Ottava Rima, male (called "he" on his ban appeal)
  20. Zelda Fitzgerald, female; User:JayHenry, male
  21. , male; User:SchroCat, male (user page)
  22. Stella Gibbons, female; User:Brianboulton, male
  23. , male; User:Skomorokh, no guess (he or she)
  24. , male; User:Vanished User, male (long story ... you can find the original username with a bit of work)
  25. , male; User:Cassianto, male (he)
  26. , male; User:Midnightdreary, male (userbox)
  27. , male; User:Jacklee, male
  28. Amir Hamzah, male; User:Crisco 1492, male (he)
  29. , female; User:Filiocht, no guess (he or she)
  30. George Herriman, male; User:Curly Turkey, male (user page)
  31. , female; User:Karanacs, female (Karen)
  32. , male; User:Cassianto, male
  33. E. W. Hornung, male; User:SchroCat, male
  34. Israel the Grammarian, male; User:Dudley Miles, male
  35. , male; User:Ottava Rima, male
  36. , male; User:Filiocht, no guess
  37. , male; User:PumpkinSky, male (he)
  38. , male; User:Jappalang, male (userbox)
  39. , male; User:SchroCat, male
  40. , male; User:Cassianto, male
  41. , male; User:Cassianto, male
  42. Little Tich, male; User:Cassianto, male
  43. , female; User:Cassianto, male
  44. James Russell Lowell, male; User:Midnightdreary, male
  45. , male; User:Angmering, male (Paul)
  46. , male; User:SchroCat, male
  47. Olivia Manning, female; User:Slp1, female (user page)
  48. , male; User:Dulcem, no guess (he or she)
  49. , female; User:Brianboulton, male
  50. , male; User:Filiocht, no guess
  51. George Robey, male; User:Cassianto, male
  52. Elaine Paige, female; User:Eagle Owl, male (userbox)
  53. , male; User:Eubulides, no guess (he or she)
  54. , male; User:Jezhotwells, male (he)
  55. , male; User:Raul654, male (probably renominating for User:Midnightdreary, male)
  56. , female; User:Midnightdreary, male
  57. Ezra Pound, male; User:Victoriaearle, female
  58. , female; User:Ricardiana, female (she)
  59. Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo, male; User:Lemurbaby, female (user page)
  60. , male; User:Eurocopter, male (he)
  61. , male; User:Brianboulton, male
  62. Ralph Richardson, male; User:Tim riley, male
  63. , female; User:Serendipodous, male (he or she)
  64. , male; User:Qp10qp, no guess
  65. John Millington Synge, male; User:Filiocht, no guess
  66. , male; User:Saravask, male (he)
  67. , male; User:Judgesurreal777, male (user page/about me)
  68. , male; User:Jbmurray, male (Jon Beasley-Murray)
  69. Hugh Walpole, male; User:Tim riley, male
  70. , male; User:Brianboulton, male
  71. , male; User:Midnightdreary, male
  72. , female; User:Kaldari, male (Ryan Kaldari)
  73. , male; User:Filiocht, no guess


Male editors nominated 47 male subject articles, and 10 female subject articles.

Female editors nominated 13 female subject articles, and 6 male subject articles.

Undetermined editors nominated 3 female subject articles and 10 male subject articles.

It looks like female editors nominate considerably more articles about female subjects, while male (and undetermined) editors nominate considerably more articles about male subjects. --GRuban (talk) 02:20, 8 September 2014 (UTC)

2021

Towards the end of last year, discussing a Wikipedia Signpost essay on articles about women, User:Jason Quinn asked an important question:

When the topic of gender bias comes up and people mention the "gender gap" and how "only 18%" of our articles are about women, it begs the question be asked, "What percentage should it be?" A kneejerk reaction might suggest 50%... but that can't be right since society HAS been severely biased against women, especially pre-1900 as this article states. Historically (and still currently in many places) women simply were expected to be more domestic which kept them from being in positions where they could do something encyclopedic. Given that that is true, it makes no sense to expect 50% of our articles to be about women. So what percentage should it be?

He was, broadly speaking, shot down for being a troll, but there is something to be said for having a goal to aim for. I recently realized this study can be used as a first approximation for that.

Specifically, in the figures above, male editors had 82% of their article nominations about male subjects, female editors had 68% about female subjects, and undetermined gender editors had 77% about male subjects. The total is 63 male subject articles, and 26 female subject articles, 71% male, 29% female subjects (already better than the 18% Jason writes about). However, we can extrapolate that if we had an equal number of male and female featured article nominators, we would have 57% articles about male subjects, 43% articles about female subjects. That is the difference that is the result of the editor gender gap. That can be our goal. There are caveats, of course, this only looked at featured article nominations, only 89 of those, way back in 2014, maybe the reason female editors nominated so many female subjects was specifically part of an effort to correct the gender gap, etc. But, I humbly submit, it's a good first order approximation. --GRuban (talk) 17:41, 15 July 2021 (UTC)