According to Wikipedia’s numbers, the gender make-up of editors is extremely out of whack. 91% of Wikipedia articles are edited by males, which makes it tough to be “written from a neutral point of view,” one of Wikipedia’s five pillars/principles. A group of editors, men and women, came together recently to talk about the inequality.
The Daily Dot reports, “The editors already noticed extreme examples of bias on English Wikipedia. Valerie Aurora, co-founder of the Ada Initiative, said it was ‘absurd’ that Wikipedia’s male editing team ranks porn stars as more notable than accomplished female scientists.” Aurora was referring to the approval process entries, in this case female scientists, have to go through before being deemed worthy of a Wikipedia article. Apparently women who win awards for porn movies that they appeared in receive an automatic pass.
Unfortunately, nothing other than talk has come from the meeting. Wikipedians seem to be stumped as to how to bring more women on as editors.
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