Friday, June 20, 2008

Gender Bias at Wikipedia?

As a frequent, and, if I do say so myself, prolific contributor to Wikipedia, the election that I'm most concerned with at present is the ongoing election to the Wikimedia Board of Trustees.

But it just struck me that, going through the candidate statements, while trying, painfully, to figure out who to vote for, there is not a single female candidate running for the Wikimedia Board of Trustees. Fifteen male candidates, not one female. (Sidenote: note how the candidate statements come up in randomized order, so that the order is different every time you refresh the page. Almost as cool as the fact that the elections use the Schulze Method to determine the winner. But I digress.)

Any thoughts as to why Wikipedia is so gendered male? Do women just have a genetic aversion to freely-provided factual information, or is there actually something deeply misogynistic about the entire wiki-universe? Please help me unravel this mystery.

Also, if you have any thoughts as to who I should vote for, please let me know.

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