Leigh Gruwell explains in her article that the epistemology of Wikipedia is largely related to the gender gap that is present on Wikipedia. She describes that women are more “passive consumers” on Wikipedia rather than producers. The “detached” and “encyclopedic” language that is required in the articles also does not allow for feminist ways of writing. Gruwell argues that “Wikipedia would let users write about feminism, but not from the embodied position of a feminist.” This, obviously, dictates the type of articles that are allowed to be published on Wikipedia. The articles that feminists write, or that are from feminist points of view, are often deemed unacceptable by Wikipedia and therefore are not published. This could be a reason for the gender gap.
Gruwell also describes how Wikipedia favors collaborative writing over a single author publishing an article. She then goes on to argue that “women” should not be lumped under the same category, because women are individuals and lumping them together under a single category has the ability to disempower them and eliminate their diversity. Since Wikipedia favors this collaborative writing, it becomes very easy to lump together different individuals and, thus, eliminating the individuality of the article. Wikipedia does not allow for much individuality, but I think this is what discourages many women from being active contributors on Wikipedia.
Gruwell explains that another possible reason for the small percentage of women editors could be the complicated editing interface. I have personally struggled with this interface already, and can see how it could be discouraging and easy to give up on. One of the women that Gruwell interviewed for this article argued that, even though she was an IT person and could understand the interface, the IT field is largely composed of men who would grasp the complicated interface much easier than many women would. Gruwell also argues that time is a huge determining factor for the women editors of encyclopedia. Many women simply do not have the free time to contribute to Wikipedia, nor are they that interested in contributing to the articles on Wikipedia.
There are many factors that Gruwell states contribute to the epistemology on Wikipedia, that then contribute to the gender gap. Gruwell seems to think that this is the natural progression of Wikipedia, and the only thing that can be done to fix it is for Wikipedia to come up with ways to attract more women editors who would not only contribute, but work to make Wikipedia a more equal resource.
oliviawofter 