In today’s digital age, there has never been an instance where I couldn’t find an ample number of resources on the topic or person I was researching. There were always several articles, interviews, books, and more about them that I could use for the essay or project that I had to do. When first looking at the Women in Red page, I was overwhelmed by the number of different criteria there were and the number of red links that I saw. Before this, I never gave that much thought about the gender gap that existed in Wikipedia as I had never used Wikipedia as a source and didn’t know that there was a gender gap and how big the gap was.
The launch of the Internet in 1933 launched the world into a digital age where information became more available and accessible. Platforms like Wikipedia emerged in the early 2000s due to a surge of a thirst for knowledge. Since then, there have been several thousands of profiles that have been created and edited that only highlight the stark gender bias as there is a notable lack of detailed information about women today. While initiatives like Women in Red exist and are dedicated to closing the gap in this gender bias and to “turn red links into blue ones” there is still a large gap that results from the systemic bias in Wikipedia. While there are several reasons for this gap ranging from gender bias existing from the editor’s side, safety and personal reasons, and backlash, it is hard to ignore the underlying systemic issues that are reflected on this online website from the gender bias that exists in the real world.
When it comes to understanding the problem of Wikipedia’s lack of representation of women, on both sides of the platform, it is important to understand the feminist theory. The feminist theory has core concepts that are sex, gender, race, discrimination, equality, difference, and choice (Arinder). The basic proposition of feminist theory is that it, “proposes when power and oppression are acknowledged and disrupted, understanding, advocacy, and change can occur” (Arinder). The model of feminist theory can be boiled down into, “a model of feminist theory that begins with the belief that systems exist that oppress and work against the individuals. The model then shows the oppression is based on intersecting identities that can create discrimination and exclusion” (Arinder). It indicates the idea that using knowledge and action, oppressive systems can be broken and changed to support change and understanding. (Arinder).
When it comes to terms with practicality, there are several ways that this model is used in research and practice. The main point of feminist research comes down to changing systems of oppression or barriers created from these systems and often goes hand in hand with action research. Students, researchers, and teachers choose a system of power that exists, such as classrooms, school districts, and politics, and question how they create discrimination and exclusion. Once they can pinpoint the barriers and issues, they can change and disrupt the system.
The feminist theory relates specifically to Wikipedia’s problem of gender bias as it follows the feminist theory model. The first step acknowledges that the system and structure of power and oppression exist. In this case, Wikipedia is that system and structure of power, and it is acknowledged that oppression exists, this would be the large gender bias that exists in the biographical profiles of Wikipedia that works against women. The Women in Red project, in this case, is the “through action” part of the model as when the Women in Red project began in 2014, there were only 15.53% of biographical profiles that were about women, and that percentage grew to 19.81% as of April 22, 2024 (Wikiproject Women in Red). Additionally, it affects both sides of the platform: editors and readers. The editors, alongside the Women In Red project, follow the feminist theory model as they try to increase the percentage of women’s bibliographies on Wikipedia. On the other hand, other editors alongside readers may not see this as a problem. For instance, there have been some instances where women have faced sexist remarks and gender discrimination on Wikipedia based on what they edit or draft (“Fighting Sexism on Wikipedia [Mashable Originals]).
While several factors led to the lack of detailed information about many women’s lives and work on Wikipedia, through what research and background knowledge that I accumulated there seem to be three main factors. Personal and safety reasons, gender bias in history, and the percentage of male-to-female editors. Historically, many of the jobs today were considered to be only fitting for males. Throughout history, many societies have been patriarchal, with men in all the “important” and powerful roles, ranging from teachers to politicians, and sports. Additionally, due to this, there is more information about men that is readily and easily available or accessible. Therefore, men take up the majority of the bibliographical pages on Wikipedia.
Safety and personal reasons are also a main contributing factor to the lack of information on women. For instance, safety on the internet is something that many people have become more aware of as technology has improved over the years due to hacking, scams, and wanting to protect yourself. When editing Wikipedia pages, without a Wikipedia page, your IP address is publicly recorded with every edit that you make. While publicly having your IP address on the internet is less dangerous, people could potentially track your moves online or commit cybercrimes. With an account, your IP address would only be seen by a few select people who work for Wikipedia (‘Get My IP Address’). Additionally, while this is not common one could receive some harassment on Wikipedia, as specifically many women editors have in the past (“Fighting Sexism on Wikipedia [Mashable Originals]”). Personal reasons could range from not caring enough to edit or create a page to not having time to put into researching these women alongside creating drafts and edits on Wikipedia pages.
The final main contributing factor is the gender disparity of editors on Wikipedia. In 2022, 80% of editors were male, 13% were female, 4% were gender diverse while the other 4% preferred not to say. The conclusion to this gender bias was, “issues such as inaccessibility, an unwelcoming environment, and general systemic societal issues in gender being reflected online” (“Gender Bias and Editing on Wikipedia.”).
There was no Wikipedia representation of the woman, Janet Perna, I chose before I started my research. While I was in the process of choosing what women I wanted to choose, some women had blue links with very limited profiles, consisting of a few sentences, while the majority had nothing about them. While there was not anything specifically linked to Janet Perna, such as other profiles that name-dropped her or IBM’s Wikipedia page, there was information about the acquisition that Perna had made in 2001. IBM’s Wikipedia page had an alumni section, and it was clear that besides around 4 names that were women, the rest were men, solidifying the gender bias that went from the real world to the digital page (IBM).
When researching women on the Redlist Index, several women had ‘editing wars’ or had several of the newly uploaded information taken down. I tried to look for relevant women today who had little to no editing wars and had no information at all, whether that be from an ‘official blue link’ or a draft. My experience engaging with Wikipedia was how one could expect their experience to be. One thing that I noticed about creating a Wikipedia account was that it could be completely separate from your other accounts, such as Gmail or Facebook, as many websites require you to either link or create your account with Gmail, Facebook, or Google.
Another thing that I noticed about the Redlist Index, specifically in the category of academics, was that while the women’s names were in red, many of the academic honors or schools they attended were in blue. Additionally, when looking through the academic honors almost all the men had at least a paragraph on their page while hardly any women did or were mentioned at all. For example, Catherine Anderson was a Rhodes Scholar recipient, who does not have a bibliographical page, but many men have a small bio for their Wikipedia page. The Rhodes Scholar was historical and originally open to male students and began to open to women in 1977. This gave me more insight into more historical context of why so many women did not have a Wikipedia biographical page.
When researching Perna, several websites popped up that focused on what was her highest accomplishment that she achieved during her time at IBM. According to an article Out of the Blue by Forbes, Perna discusses her role at IBM and her achievement of surpassing Oracle when she closed a deal to buy Informix for $1 billion. The article goes into deeper detail as Perna was able to have 15 consecutive quarters of revenue growth in distributed sales at 50% a year. Forbes covered background information about this deal, Perna’s role, and specifics on what she did in the company (Out of the Blue). When comparing this article to IBM’s Wikipedia page, I noticed that there was nothing on her accomplishments or her name throughout the page. With such a huge accomplishment that pushed IBM in front of its competitor Oracle, I expected there to be some details when it came to the history of this company. Different categories on this page go into depth about their People and culture and go as far as to note that “In Japan, IBM employees also have an American football team complete with pro stadium, cheerleaders and televised games, competing in the Japanese X-League as the ‘Big Blue’ (IBM).
Melanie Rose discusses Perna’s “Perna-Rose Foundation for Hope” as she presents the foundation’s mission, contributions, and board members. Both Rose and Perna are former IBM executives who decided to give back to the community by donating funds to organizations that offer people support for basic needs to give back to their community. As of June 30th, 2023, they have successfully donated $2,487,846 to nonprofits that help with basic needs, education, women in business, and animal welfare. It discusses more personal aspects of Perna’s life, such as diving into her hobbies, and what she has accomplished outside of her time at IBM.
In addition to co-founding her foundation, she has donated 5 million to her alma mater, SUNY Oneonta, which announced that its Science 1 building will be renamed the Janet R. Perna Science Building. Additionally, half of the funding would be used to support the school’s programs, and activities while the other half would be used for the “Janet Perna ’70 Women in Technology Scholarship” (Science 1 Named for Alumna Janet R. Perna). This gave insight into Perna’s accomplishments in academics, honors, awards, financial support, and other contributions that she made to SUNY Oneonta during her time there and after as an alumnus.
Scannell covers more professional and personal details of Perna’s life with a Q and A on the eve of her retirement. As the information takes place through a Q and A, Perna can give more descriptive information as she talks about why she retired, and what she learned over the years at IBM. She also responds that what she’s most proud of over her 31 years at IBM would be, “Growing from a mainframe database to where we are today, which is the leader in information management” something that she heavily contributed to (Scannell). She also covers the gender bias in the technology industry as she, “hope I have been a positive role model for women. We clearly need more women in senior positions as role models for other women” (Scannell).
Even with these sources not being related to Wikipedia, these sources make Wikipedia’s gender gap more apparent as you compare what is on Wikipedia and what is not. Out of the 45 alumni listed under Notable People, only 9 of them are women while 8 of them have their own Wikipedia biographical page. Even with all her notable achievements such as being the highest-ranking female software executive at her time of induction, donating 5 million to her alma mater, and having a building named after her, Perna is not listed amongst the alumni. Alongside her achievements, her relevancy in today’s world alongside being alive to this day allows for information about her to be more accessible than other women on the Redlist index.
Janet Perna, born in 1944 in Middletown, New York, is a software engineer who most notably worked for IBM (Raghunathan). From 1974 to 2005, she worked as a General Manager Information Management (Perna). At the time of her induction, she was considered the highest-ranking female software executive at IBM (“Janet Perna” WITI).
Education
Perna attended the State University of New York Oneonta (SUNY Oneonta) in 1966 and graduated in 1970. As the first to graduate from college, she went on to attend Santa Clara University to obtain her master’s in Master of Business Administration from 1983 to 1984. In 2012, she obtained her Doctor of Human Letters from SUNY Oneonta.
Career
From 1996 to 2006, Perna worked as General Manager for IBM Software. She obtained her title as General Manager Information Mgmt and was responsible for IBM’s Information Management Software Business which included database, information integration, and enterprise content management. After she left IBM, she continued to work in the software industry as she joined as Corporate Director in several companies.
She left IBM and joined Cognos from April 2006 to December 2007 as a Corporate Director. She was based in Ottawa and was also a member of the Audit Committee. After spending a year and 9 months at Cognos, she left to join Flexera Software, also as a Corporate Director. She remained there from May 2008 to October 2011.
Additionally to her Corporate Director title in Flexera Software, she also became a Corporate Director at Varicent (from January 2007 to May 2012) and Deltek (April 2006 to November 2012). She was also a member of the Compensation Committee at Varicent and a member of the Board of Directors and Audit Committee at Deltek.
She spent 6 years as a Corporate Director at JDA Software, from 2009 to 2015, in Scottsdale, Arizona. She was also the Chair of Strategy Committee and a member of the UAdit and Compensation Committees.
She became a Technology Advisor at Georgian Partners in 2008, located in Toronto, Ontario, and continues this role today. In February of 2013, she joined Cloudmark as Corporate Director where she remains still today. In 2015, she joined Centana Management LLC as a Technology Advisory located in Menlo Park, California where she remains today. In 2015, she also joined BridgeGrowth Partners as a Technology Advisor where she remains today.
Awards and Recognition
Perna was inducted into the Women in Technology Hall of Fame in 2001. She was listed amongst the nation’s Top 10 Women in IT by Information Week and was listed on Smart Partner’s list of 50 Smartest People (“Janet Perna” WITI).
Today, thousands of women do not have a Wikipedia page. Their occupations range from scientists, lawyers, activists, artists, and athletes. Today, with the help of technology, it is easier to find information about these women as no one can cover up their achievements. Perna, with her award and contribution to IBM, has yet to have a Wikipedia page that highlights the gender bias that is present on Wikipedia. In a field that is dominated by males, Perna rose to the occasion and became one that dominated that field. Learning and writing about her in the present time shows how society is starting its long battle to overcome systemic barriers and challenge gender bias.
Works Cited
Arinder, Jo Ann. “Feminist Theory.” Theoretical Models for Teaching and Research, opentext.wsu.edu/theoreticalmodelsforteachingandresearch/chapter/feminist-theory/#:~:text=Feminist%20theory%20works%20to%20support,and%20disrupting%20power%20and%20oppression.&text=Feminist%20theory%20proposes%20that%20when,advocacy%2C%20and%20change%20can%20occur. Accessed 30 Apr. 2024.
“Fighting Sexism on Wikipedia [Mashable Originals].” YouTube, YouTube, 15 Oct. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQSpzytzc2k.
“Gender Bias and Editing on Wikipedia.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Dec. 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Gender_bias_and_editing_on_Wikipedia.
“Get My Ip Address.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 7 Feb. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Get_my_IP_address#:~:text=If%20you%20are%20not%20logged,small%20number%20of%20trusted%20administrators.
“IBM.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Apr. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM.
“Janet Perna.” WITI, witi.com/halloffame/110144/Janet-Perna-General-Manager,-Data-Management-Solutions-IBM-Software-Group/. Accessed 1 May 2024.
“Out of the Blue.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 6 June 2013, www.forbes.com/global/2001/1015/046.html?sh=fa54dbd4d6fb. Accessed 10 Apr. 2024.
Perna, Janet. Janet Perna – Stamford, Connecticut, United States | Professional Profile | Linkedin, www.linkedin.com/in/janet-perna-0b71143/. Accessed 1 May 2024.
Raghunathan, Anuradha. The Times Herald-Record. “From Teacher to Techie.” Record, Times Herald-Record, 15 Dec. 2010, www.recordonline.com/story/news/2001/08/12/from-teacher-to-techie/51189978007/.
Rose, Melanie. “Perna-Rose Foundation for Hope.” Perna-Rose Foundation for Hope, 2023, www.pernafoundationforhope.org/. Accessed 10 Apr. 2024.
Scannell, Ed. “QandA with IBM’s Janet Perna on Eve of Her Retirement.” CRN, 5 Oct. 2005, www.crn.com/news/channel-programs/171202420/qanda-with-ibms-janet-perna-on-eve-of-her-retirement. Accessed 10 Apr. 2024.
“Science 1 Named for Alumna Janet R. Perna.” SUNY Oneonta, 22 Mar. 2018, suny.oneonta.edu/news-events/science-1-named-alumna-janet-r-perna. Accessed 14 Apr. 2024.
“State University of New York at Oneonta.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Apr. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_University_of_New_York_at_Oneonta.
“Wikiproject Women in Red.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 25 Apr. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Women_in_Red.