5 ms·
It's not surprising to me that women contribute to Wikipedia at a low rate, because women also contribute to open source at a lower rate than they program profe
by chubot 12y ago
It's not surprising to me that women contribute to Wikipedia at a low rate, because women also contribute to open source at a lower rate than they program professionally. I suspect the same factors are at work.
My personal experience is that somewhere between 10 and 20% of professional programmers are women, and a similar or slightly higher fraction of CS majors.
I've heard the number 1-2% batted around for the fraction of female open source developers (i.e. 10x less than the professional rate). It's hard to find good sources, but this site suggests that it's higher now:
http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/FLOSS http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/FLOSS
Although some of these numbers are about conference attendees and speakers, and is looks like there have been dramatic increases there, probably because of conscious effort. (I think this is probably a good thing; I rarely attend conferences, but an all-male dynamic can be depressing.)
What wikipedia and open source have in common is "text-based interaction", and I think that is offputting to some people, in particular women. I don't think it is surprising that female programmers would prefer interaction in a workplace or school to text-based interaction.
Likewise, you could infer that Hacker News probably has a lower fraction of women than the fraction in the startup/YC community, because it's very text-based. And looking at the top posters list, I think that inference would be correct!
(I'm curious who the top female on this list is: https://news.ycombinator.com/leaders https://news.ycombinator.com/leaders)
- DanBC 12y ago> What wikipedia and open source have in common is "text-based interaction", and I think that is offputting to some people, in particular women. I don't think it is surprising that female programmers would prefer interaction in a workplace or school to text-based interaction. Why do women write more books than men? Why do women read more books than men?
- corylehey 12y agoBecause those are solitary endeavors, not "interactions"
- transpy 12y agoI don't think your distinction (or judgment) here changes OP's point. It might be a solitary, textual endeavor, but the question remains: why are women less prone to dedicate time to this sort of stuff.
- corylehey 12y agoThe answer OP poised was that Wikipedia and Open Source require text based interactions with others in the community - beyond the actual exercise of writing wikipedia pages and writing code. Thats the difference here, not that women don't like reading or writing.
- chubot 12y agoCitation? It's not obvious to me that either is true. I am not part of the literary world but apparently it is "male-dominated". http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/29/men-women-vida-count-2011_n_1310662.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/29/men-women-vida-coun... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/9977417/Women-writers-suffer-in-male-dominated-literary-world-says-novelist.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/9977417/Women-write...
- DanBC 12y agoIt's really clear for readers of fiction. http://curiosity.discovery.com/question/woman-read-more-fiction http://curiosity.discovery.com/question/woman-read-more-fict... As for writing: I got the quote from "Open Book", a BBC Radio Four programme. Here's a similar quote: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/9778413/Costa-Prize-women-rule-the-literary-world-so-why-the-focus-on-men.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/9778413/Costa-Prize... > Women write and buy vastly more books, and more fiction, than men, yet you wouldn’t guess it to see how literary prizes are discussed in newspapers. Here's an article that mentions the Open Book programme http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/feb/25/london-review-books-women-reviewers-gender-inequality http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/feb/25/londo...
- idonkre5 12y agoSince when these FemiNazi sites became source of referral ? When was last time you read something men favored on HFP and telegraph. Go in you cave.
- 1ris 12y agoIn the OSZE PISA studies women/girls are better than their male counterparts in reading comprehension in every single country in the studies.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- idlewords 12y agoMy girlfriend asked me to write that you're an idiot.