Women Contributors Still Face Hurdles at Wikipedia

For all its efforts, Wikipedia has been unable to attract more women to its ranks of contributors.

Wikipedia has come a long way since its inception in 2001, but the proportion of female contributors at the online encyclopedia remains stubbornly low. Men still account for an overwhelming 87% of Wikipedia's contributors, co-founder Jimmy Wales said recently while in Hong Kong  for the organization's annual Wikimania conference.

Barriers for women contributors have remained high despite Wikipedia's efforts, which have included adopt-an-editor programs, women's online and offline communities and scholarships for women.

"I wish we had solved the problem, but we didn't," Sue Gardner, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit organization that operates Wikipedia, said at the Wikimania conference in Hong Kong. Ms. Gardner is leaving the organization soon and has written a well-publicized blog on the hurdles that women contributors face at the organization.

Sydney Poore first started editing Wikipedia in 2005 when she noticed articles about drugs, medical procedures and diseases were generally male-oriented. Ms. Poore was then an obstetrics nurse in Lexington, Kentucky, and her early contributions were articles about women's health.

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