Grants:Project/Magioladitis/Why women don’t edit Wikipedia
This project is funded by a Project Grant
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Project idea[edit]
What is the problem you're trying to solve?[edit]
Explain the problem that you are trying to solve with this project or the opportunity you’re taking advantage of. What is the issue you want to address? You can update and add to this later.
Greek Wikipedia has few articles, especially articles concerning women's issues. For example: a strong feminist movement existed in the country during the late seventies and it raised many serious issues concerning women's reproductive rights (abortions, free contraception), sexuality and prostitution. Despite its struggles against the traditional roles of woman in the Greek family and its serious impact in Greek society, there is still not even one article written in Wikipedia about it.
Moreover, the synthesis of the Greek Wikipedia community is largely male oriented.
In the foreign literature, the limited participation of women in Wikipedia is often attributed to causes such as: "Wikipedia is sexist. Women lack confidence. Women have less spare time. Women have problems with the editing interface. Editing is tedious. Women have fewer opportunities to develop social relationships than on other websites".[1] The same common beliefs also prevail in Greece.
Following the outreach method we used last year with success (talks, meetings with feminist groups and female targeted groups, edit-a-thons) in a larger scale we want to raise awareness of these problems and increase female participation in Wikipedia projects, Wikimedia community and at the same with creating more articles of female interest.
What is your solution?[edit]
If you think of your project as an experiment in solving the problem you just described, what is the particular solution you're aiming to test? You will provide details of your plan below, but explain your main idea here.
We will use a variety of outreach methods.
- Organise meetings with female oriented groups, feminist organisations,
- Give talks
- Organise edit-a-thons in collaboration with various groups.
- Distribute leaflets to a female magasine (Telesilla) subscribers
The idea of using collaboration has already been demonstrated and presented in Esino Lario during Wikimania 2016 (watch video version of the related poster).
Project goals[edit]
Explain what are you trying to accomplish with this project, or what do you expect will change as a result of this grant.
The goal of our project is to reduce the gender gap in Greek Wikimedia community and gender bias in Greek Wikipedia articles.
We expect to increase female participation in Greek Wikimedia community and an amount of articles to be created or expanded.
Project plan[edit]
Activities
Tell us how you'll carry out your project. What will you and other organizers spend your time doing? What will you have done at the end of your project? How will you follow-up with people that are involved with your project?
The activities will focus in Greece's two most populated cities: Athens and Thessaloniki with metropolitan populations of approximately 4 million and 1 million inhabitants respectively i.e. almost 50% fo the population of Greece.
Athens and Thessaloniki is also the place where the groups I am collaborating with are located.
- 3 talks (2 x Athens, Thessaloniki)
- 1 presentation to an educators' conference
- 2 workshops (Athens, Thessaloniki)
- 3 meetings (Athens, Thessaloniki)
- 2 videos
- 1 scientific paper
- 250 questionnaires
The plan is that the duration of the project will be seven months (7) months due to personal restrictions in time. The project is scheduled to start at the beginning of November 2016 and be completed by the end of June 2017.
The will be two (2) talks organised by Telesilla and MOV and one (1) talk organised by SheSharp.
Budget[edit]
How you will use the funds you are requesting? List bullet points for each expense. (You can create a table later if needed.) Don’t forget to include a total amount, and update this amount in the Probox at the top of your page too!
- Handouts for women
- Travelling expenses
- Incidentals
| No | Category | Description | Units | Cost/unit | Total Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Posters | Promotion of the events such as cheap single use posters | 60 | €1.00 | €60.00 |
| 2 | Other print materials | Handouts, certificates, etc. | ~600 | €0.50 | €300.00 |
| 3 | Swags | Buttons and stickers | 14 packs of 50 pcs | ~9 EUR +pp | €200.00 |
| 4 | Travelling expenses | Travelling (incl. buses), accommodation and per diem expenses for 8 events | 10 | €250.00 | €2500.00 |
| 5 | Soft drinks, etc. | For the talks and the meetings | 6 | €70.00 | €420.00 |
| 6 | Incidentals | Expenses that are not projected in the budget but may still occur | n/a | €120.00 | €120.00 |
- Total cost of project
- €3600.00
Community engagement[edit]
How will you let others in your community know about your project? Why are you targeting a specific audience? How will you engage the community you’re aiming to serve at various points during your project? Community input and participation helps make projects successful. Three members of the user groups will actively take part in the events. We also plan to use the user group blog, Facebook page and other social media.
We already contacted:
- SheSharp Greece (see also: Facebook page; greek community of people dedicated to promote women's engagement with technology & science; located in Thessaloniki)
- Research Centre for Women's Affairs (RCWA) (Located in Athens) and
- Telesilla - Greek Feminist Network. (Located in Athens)
These are female communities in which we organised events with in 2016 (SheSharp was coorganiser of the Hackathon and Telesilla organised the gender gap talk).
The project is also supported by feminist group TO MOV.
See also[edit]
Sustainability[edit]
What do you expect will happen to your project after the grant ends? How might the project be continued or grown in new ways afterwards?
The outcome will will help us engage more women in the Wikimedia community and also reduce the gender gap and gender bias problems in the existing content. It will also raise women's trust on Wikipedia.
Measures of success[edit]
How will you know if the project is successful and you've met your goals? Please include specific, measurable targets here.
- Number of participants in presentations: 40 in each event
- Number of participants in workshops: 20 in each event
- Number of Wikipedia articles written by workshop participants after 7 months: 80
- Filled in questionnaires: 250
- YouTube videos released: 2
Get involved[edit]
Participants[edit]
Please use this section to tell us more about who is working on this project. For each member of the team, please describe any project-related skills, experience, or other background you have that might help contribute to making this idea a success.
- Marios Magioladitis is an educator and a long-time Wikimedian in English and Greek Wikipedia. He is studying the gender gap. He is in cooperation with the Independent Women's Movement - Greek Feminist Network; a feminist group that publishes magazine Telesilla. He has given lectures about Wikipedia's gender gap, hosted a specialised editathon, and published a number of papers on the subject.
- Stamatina (Mata) Kaloudaki is Consultant Director of Research Centre of Women's Affairs (RCWA) (See also: [1]); Economist; Expert on women issues.
- desantonop is member of She Sharp Greece. She is very active in organising events. She had a main role in 2nd SheSharp Edit-athon that was organised in 2015 as a collaboration between Wikimedia Community User Group Greece and SheSharp.
- Amaliavr is member of both She Sharp Greece and Wikimedia Community User Group Greece. She is newly recruited member and a key link between the two groups.
Community notification[edit]
Please paste links below to where relevant communities have been notified of your proposal, and to any other relevant community discussions. Need notification tips?
Endorsements[edit]
Do you think this project should be selected for a Project Grant? Please add your name and rationale for endorsing this project below! (Other constructive feedback is welcome on the discussion page).
Support Marios is a quite experienced user on gender gap issues and his approach will throw more light on the reasons why women are less represented in Wikimedia Projects comparatively to their role in economy and society in Greece. His long term commitment on this issue is a strong sign that this project will be a fruitful one. I will support this project both on organizational and practical level. I would love also to help with the research. --Γλαύκος (talk) 08:39, 3 August 2016 (UTC)- Support SheSharp Greece supports this project. We trust Marios abilities and believe in his longtime vision to increase the number and commitment of women who edit Wikipedia. In May 2016 we had the pleasure to organize with great success, an edit-a-thon on “gender gap in Wikipedia” with the valuable help and contribution of Marios and Geraki. There is work to be done and Marios is the right person to achieve the desired result. We are willing to support this project on practical level and we are looking forward to the co-organization of the next workshop referring to the topic. We would also be glad to assist the survey and the administration of the questionnaires. --desantonop 10:21, 6 August 2016 (UTC)
Comment Please note that two of the individuals engaged in this grant proposal were involved in a harassment incident at Malpensa Airport hours after the closing of Wikimania 2016. Namely, the adviser of this project User:Geraki was the offender and User:Magioladitis was present at the incident (as was User:Kalliope (WMF)). The matter is currently being investigated by User:Jalexander-WMF of the Support & Safety Dept. In my opinion review of this proposal should be suspended until the harassment issue is resolved. Read more here. However, even if the Committee decides that the aforementioned incident is not an obstacle to approval of this grant proposal, I find it amusing (to say the least) that Geraki should be the advisor of a proposal targeting the participation of women on the WM projects when he shouted loudly at a woman editor in a public space (I'm female, for those of you who don't already know me). Not to mention that the incident occurred in the presence of a female WMF employee. --Saintfevrier (talk) 09:45, 24 August 2016 (UTC)- Support Marios' work on gender gap is admirable. His talks are not only informative but also inspiring. Projects that research the lack of female contributors and approach this issue in a unique way are very important in order to find solutions. As a Wikipedian and a female user I support this project. --Amaliavr (talk) 21:36, 1 September 2016 (UTC)
- Support We are the Greek feminist collective “TO MOV” (which means «the purple» in Greek), an independent organisation for women’s rights and other issues, and we would like to “strongly endorse this project and fully support its implementation”. We are all activists and volunteers; we organize actions and we publish articles on our daily electronic newspaper http://tomov.gr/ about several issues of interest for women, such as rights, demands, daily life, equality among locals and migrants, sexual orientation and gender identity, ideological analyses and studies, law, contribution of women in arts and science, young women, actions for women’s rights in Greece and abroad, internationalist solidarity. We use our website as a tool to undermine and overturn the existing patriarchal mentalities, logic, hierarchies and powers, and promote a global discourse for social change, from the standpoint of equality and feminism. We think that this project will have a positive impact and encourage the dynamic presence of women and the feminist discourse in the public sphere. This is indeed very important and necessary in Greece and we do believe that there is a great potential in this direction. We would like to give special thanks to Marios for being sensitive on this issue and taking this great initiative. We appreciate his long-time commitment on the gender gap issues and we will support this effort too. Tomov.gr (talk) 14:13, 6 September 2016 (UTC)
Footnotes[edit]
- ↑ Kat Stoeffel, "Closing Wikipedia’s Gender Gap — Reluctantly", New York Magazine, 11 February 2014, Sue Gardner, "Nine Reasons Women Don't Edit Wikipedia (in their own words)", suegardner.org, 19 February 2011, "Wikipedia 'completely failed' to fix gender imbalance", BBC News, 8 August 2014