ANALYSIS OF THE GENDER GAP IN THE CO-PRODUCTION OF KNOWLEDGE IN THE WIKIPEDIAS OF SPAIN
Women and Wikipedia (W&W) seeks to answer the question: how can women effectively access, edit, and transform Wikipedia. The project focuses on the Spanish Wikipedia and addresses the gender gap and biases that have been analysed by several authors regarding the editing practices and community participation in Wikipedia (most editors are men and women are more exposed to conflicts such as reversion and blocking than men, pushing them towards dropping out), as well as its contents (biographies of men outnumber those of women and tend to be more extensive).
The research will measure the presence or absence of female editors in the Spanish Wikipedia by analysing the most productive participating countries (Spain, Argentina, México, Chile, Colombia, Perú, Venezuela, Uruguay and Ecuador), and the rest of Spanish Wikipedian communities such as Euskal Wikipedia, Viquipèdia and Galipedia. On the other hand, the project will characterize the editing practices developed by male and female editors (i.e. observing the differences in content creation and modification, their participation in the discussion processes for content deletion, and their suggestion of information sources for content validation) and analyse the retention of female editors in Wikipedia as a means to reduce the gender gap.
Start date: 01/01/2021 – End date: 31/12/2023
Principal Investigator: Núria Ferran-Ferrer (Universitat de Barcelona)
Research Team:
Patricia Castellanos (Universidad Internacional de Valencia)
Maite Comalat (Universitat de Barcelona)
Julio Meneses (GenTIC – IN3-UOC & UOC Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences)
Julià Minguillón (UOC Faculty of Computer Science, Multimedia and Telecommunications)
Amadeu Pons (Universitat de Barcelona)
Aurora Vall (Universitat de Barcelona)
Tona Monjo (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
David Ramírez-Ordóñez (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
Funding body:
This project has received funding from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Ref.: PID2020-116936RA-I00)
Related projects:
“Where are women editors at Wikipedia: absent or hidden?” (Funded by “la Caixa” Bank Foundation through the UOC call for grants for interdisciplinary research projects 2018).