Day 1: Created my wikipedia username (Hello0723) a gender neutral name which wouldn’t be easily targeted. Crazy how I never knew anything the gender bias that has been going on wikipedia for quit some time.
Day 2: Started looking around the Women in red talk page. Does not allow users to discuss ways to improve the article, this doesn’t seem fair at all. How can this project ever be successful when they don’t allow any improvements to be made to this page.
Day 3: Added comment on sexism in English language. (Compared to the Spanish language, English does appear sexist because of its “gender-neutral” words. Spanish has both feminine and masculine references when it comes to terms as simple as doctor, teacher, or director.)
Day 4: Chose activist Sonia Almanzar Acosta as my person. What caught my attention was that she is Dominican just like I am. I hope I can find a good load of information about her life as an activist.
Day 5: When searching for my activist (Sonia Almanzar Acosta) I was able to find a biography about her life in Spanish on wikipedia. Was published on May 30, 2014. Her life seemed to be pretty interesting. One thing that caught my eye was the way she helped servants escape her household since they were being treated like slaves by her family. You can tell she was a kind person at heart.
Day 6: Made a comment on the biography.
Day 7: Sad to say I haven’t been able to find any other info on my activist, might have to pick another person to research on, only article that I have found was the biography.
Very interesting username, I didn’t give the idea of gender bias being portrayed in a username any thought. I also found difficulty making edits to articles on the sight. I hope you can find a new activist to research for your paper.
It was very interesting to read your perspective. You have a great point about opening discussions for improvement, and I wonder if they’ve taken that function off for a specific reason.
Well the first thing i saw was that you were a fellow Dominican so i had to comment, but i also find it interesting that we all sort of had a misunderstanding or just low expectancy for how serious and overwhelming gender-bias is especially in a site like Wikipedia where 90% of editors are men, says a lot.
Agreed with your point on day 2! It definitely does not seem fair to not allow users to discuss ways to improve the article. If we arent able to edit the articles correctly, how are viewers able to know the truth?? Thank you for sharing!