page_title: Gender bias on Wikipedia
section_title: Possible causes
hierarchical_section_title: Gender bias on Wikipedia / Possible causes
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of Sue Gardner, street portrait (alt), shot December 2012. Photographs by Victoria Will (http://www.victoriawill.com/) for the Wikimedia Foundation.
context_page_description: Gender bias on Wikipedia, also known as the Wikipedia gender gap, refers to the fact that Wikipedia contributors are mostly male, the fact that relatively few biographies on Wikipedia are about women, and the concept that topics of interest to women are less well-covered. On the English Wikipedia, the dominant majority of volunteer editors are male, which, among other factors, contributes to a lack of female perspective in both scope and coverage across the project. Overall, articles about women are less likely to be considered notable, written, expanded, neutral, and detailed. Language that is considered sexist, loaded, or otherwise gendered has been identified in articles about women. It features among the most frequent criticisms of Wikipedia, sometimes as part of a more general criticism about systemic bias in Wikipedia and its factual reliability.
  The Wikimedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia, has confirmed these criticisms and, since the late-2010s, has made an ongoing attempt to increase female editorship. Former executive director of Wikimedia Sue Gardner cited nine reasons why women don't edit Wikipedia in 2011.
context_section_description: Several causes for this gender disparity have been suggested. A 2010 study revealed a Wikipedia female participation rate of 13 percent, observed to be close to the 15 percent overall female participation rate of other "public thought-leadership forums". Wikipedia research fellow Sarah Stierch acknowledged that it is "fairly common" for Wikipedia contributors to remain gender-anonymous. A perceived unwelcoming culture and tolerance of violent and abusive language are also reasons put forth for the gender gap. According to a 2013 study, another cause of the gender gap in Wikipedia is the failure to attract and retain female editors, resulting in a negative impact on Wikipedia's coverage. As well, Wikipedia "...editors that publicly identify as women face harassment" from other Wikipedia editors.
  Former Wikimedia Foundation executive director Sue Gardner cited nine reasons why women don't edit Wikipedia, culled from comments by female Wikipedia editors:
  A lack of user-friendliness in the editing interface.
  Not having enough free time.
  A lack of self-confidence.
  Aversion to conflict and an unwillingness to participate in lengthy edit wars.
  Belief that their contributions are too likely to be reverted or deleted.
  Some find its overall atmosphere misogynistic.
  Wikipedia culture is sexual in ways they find off-putting.
  Being addressed as male is off-putting to women whose primary language has grammatical gender.
  Fewer opportunities for social relationships and a welcoming tone compared to other sites.
  Though the proportion of female readership to male readership on Wikipedia is roughly equal (47%), women are less likely to convert themselves to editors (16%). Several studies suggest that there may be a formed culture in Wikipedia that discourages women from participating. Lam et al. link this culture due to a disparity in male-to-female centric topics represented and edited, the tendency for female users to be more active in the social and community aspects of Wikipedia, an increased likelihood that edits by new female editors are reverted, and/or that articles with high proportions of female editors are more contentious.
  Collier and Bear in 2012 summarized the reason for working barriers of women in Wikipedia in three words: conflict, criticism and confidence. Conflict means online harassment, trolling and competition which women generally do not like; Criticism refers to women's unwillingness to edit someone else's work and to let their work be edited by someone else; Confidence shows that women are often not too confident about their own expertise and ability in editing and contributing to a certain work. Wikipedia's free to edit policy gives Internet users an open platform, while also unconsciously breeding a competitive and critical environment that limits women's incentives to participate.
  Through examining the power infrastructure of Wikipedia, Ford and Wajcman pointed out another cause that may reinforce Wikipedia's gender bias. Editing on Wikipedia requires "particular forms of sociotechnical expertise and authority that constitute the knowledge or epistemological infrastructure of Wikipedia".  People who are equipped with this expertise and skill are considered more likely to reach positions with power in Wikipedia. These are proposed to be predominantly men.
  Studies have also considered the gender bias in Wikipedia from a historical perspective. Konieczny and Klein indicated that Wikipedia is just a part of our biased society which has a long history of gender inequality. As Wikipedia records daily activities by individual editors, it serves as both "a reflection of the world" and "a tool used to produce our world".
caption: Former Wikimedia Foundation executive director Sue Gardner provided nine reasons, offered by female Wikipedia editors, "Why Women Don't Edit Wikipedia."[41]
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