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Conflict, criticism, or confidence | Proceedings of the ACM 2012 conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work

research-article

Conflict, criticism, or confidence: an empirical examination of the gender gap in wikipedia contributions

Authors:

Benjamin Collier,

Julia BearAuthors Info & Claims

CSCW '12: Proceedings of the ACM 2012 conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work

Pages 383 - 392

https://doi.org/10.1145/2145204.2145265

Published: 11 February 2012 Publication History

Abstract

A recent survey of contributors to Wikipedia found that less than 15% of contributors are women. This gender contribution gap has received significant attention from both researchers and the media. A panel of researchers and practitioners has offered several insights and opinions as to why a gender gap exists in contributions despite gender anonymity online. The gender research literature suggests that the difference in contribution rates could be due to three factors: (1) the high levels of conflict in discussions, (2) dislike of critical environments, and (3) lack of confidence in editing other contributors' work. This paper examines these hypotheses regarding the existence of the gender gap in contribution by using data from an international survey of 176,192 readers, contributors, and former contributors to Wikipedia, including measures of demographics, education, motivation, and participation. Implications for improving the design and culture of online communities to be more gender inclusive are discussed.

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Index Terms

Conflict, criticism, or confidence: an empirical examination of the gender gap in wikipedia contributions
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Collaborative and social computing

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cover image ACM Conferences

CSCW '12: Proceedings of the ACM 2012 conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work

February 2012

1460 pages

ISBN:9781450310864

DOI:10.1145/2145204

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Boeing Research & Technology
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University of Milano-Biccoca
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Program Chairs:
Jonathan Grudin
Microsoft Research
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Gloria Mark
University of California, Irvine
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John Riedl
University of Minnesota

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Published: 11 February 2012

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Cited By

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https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231241271723
Ardati AMiguel AVoss A(2024)Designing for Care in the Wikipedia CommunityProceedings of the Participatory Design Conference 2024: Full Papers - Volume 110.1145/3666094.3666112(75-85)Online publication date: 11-Aug-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3666094.3666112
KRIVAA LCOSCIA M(2024)TRACES OF UNEQUAL ENTRY REQUIREMENT FOR ILLUSTRIOUS PEOPLE ON WIKIPEDIA BASED ON THEIR GENDERAdvances in Complex Systems10.1142/S021952592450003627:03Online publication date: 14-Jun-2024
https://doi.org/10.1142/S0219525924500036
Centelles MFerran-Ferrer N(2024)Assessing knowledge organization systems from a gender perspective: Wikipedia taxonomy and Wikidata ontologiesJournal of Documentation10.1108/JD-11-2023-023080:7(124-147)Online publication date: 5-Apr-2024
https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-11-2023-0230
Vetter MJiang JOthman MMuguimi M(2024)Navigating the emotional terrain of Wikipedia writing: A feminist affective analysis of student writers’ engagement with the “be bold” guidelineComputers and Composition10.1016/j.compcom.2024.10285072(102850)Online publication date: Jun-2024
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Ferran-Ferrer NBoté-Vericad JMinguillón J(2023)Wikipedia gender gap: a scoping reviewEl Profesional de la información10.3145/epi.2023.nov.17Online publication date: 16-Dec-2023
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Stańczak KRay Choudhury SPimentel TCotterell RAugenstein I(2023)Quantifying gender bias towards politicians in cross-lingual language modelsPLOS ONE10.1371/journal.pone.027764018:11(e0277640)Online publication date: 28-Nov-2023
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