The findings of the Gender Diversity Mapping project were reported in theGender equity report 2018.
Improving the diversity our content and contributors is core to achieving our vision -- a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all human knowledge. While there are many facets to diversity, we know there is a clear lack of gender diversity within our movement:cisgender men are the majority of contributors on Wikimedia projects and this significantly impacts the content, culture and structure of the projects. Based on the incomplete data we have, we know that only 13-23% of our contributors on the Wikimedia projects are female, and we know nearly nothing about the participation rates of other genders.[1] There are many reasons for this imbalance and many initiatives across our movement to address the issue. However, we do not currently have a comprehensive understanding of the work that is being done across the movement to address this, the challenges women and other genders in our communities face, and what cultural, policy, or technical interventions could support an increase in gender diversity.
At the crossroads of editors, content, policies, programs, partnerships, and the public, there are a lot of different actions being taken to support gender diversity across Wikimedia communities, but no one has a complete picture of who is doing what, what the outcomes and impacts are, and what needs may exist to do this work better.
‘’’Gender diversity mapping’’’ is a strategic new initiative in 2017 that will map initiatives supporting gender diversity across the Wikimedia community. While Wikimedia communities have been working on addressing these issues for a number of years, this project will focus on the period of June 2016-June 2017 to provide a snapshot of the most recent activities. Through this project, we will develop a better understanding of the current state of activities supporting gender diversity. In particular, we hope the study is able to document successes, challenges, and capacity-building of various communities through an interview process. By having a more complete understanding of gender diversity efforts, we aim to better share best practices and lessons learned, measure impact, and inspire new projects across the movement. The project will be structured in a way that if someone wants to replicate the mapping at another point in the future, they can build off of this work.
On March 20, 2017, the Huffington Post ran a piece entitled,"Gender Diversity: Are We Asking The Right Questions?" This is a relevant headline for the Gender Diversity Mapping project, too, so,we invite your feedback! Please add your comments/questions to the talk page. If you'd like to participate in an interview, please state your interest on the talk page as well.
We will form an Advisory Board to provide guidance on the mapping process, including interview questions, interviewees, and data analysis and presentation.
The mapping process will occur via structured interviews with dozens of community members and translators as needed. We are aware that it will be impossible to cover all of the amazing work done by volunteers to support gender diversity across the globe. However, we hope that the interviews will be inclusive and comprehensive enough to indicate themes around success, challenges, and needs. The outcomes of the mapping will be presented in a way that people who were not interviewed can add their information. The "high-touch" approach provides contributors with person-to-person attention and customizes the context of the interview in a manner that surveys can't produce. The Advisory Board and translators will assist with the process to assure we work towards the goals. Preliminary results will be presented at the WikiWomen Camp in Mexico City in July 2017 with full results posted on wiki.
The people involved in the Gender Diversity Mapping project include: