2025:Program/Beyond “Ladies in Red”: Struggling with Gender Equity in Russian Wikipedia
Session title: Beyond “Ladies in Red”: Struggling with Gender Equity in Russian Wikipedia
- Session type: Lecture
- Track: Community Health
- Language: en
🎥 Session recording: https://w.wiki/FBae 🎥
This session explores the ongoing challenges of achieving gender equity in Russian Wikipedia. Despite efforts to close the gender gap, women remain underrepresented as contributors and as article subjects.
A feminative is a word or grammatical form used to denote a female person or role, often derived from a masculine counterpart. Feminatives are common in many languages with gendered grammar systems, such as Russian, German, and Spanish. The lecture will describe a process of changing the policy for using feminatives in Russian Wikipedia articles. The case studies from Russian Wikipedia will highlight key obstacles and potential solutions. This session is essential for anyone interested in gender equity, Wikipedia’s editorial policies, and the broader impact of representation in digital knowledge platforms.
Description
Aims:
- To identify systemic challenges that hinder gender equity in the Russian Wikipedia community.
- To explore strategies for increasing female participation and improving the coverage of notable women.
Objectives:
- Investigate how editorial practices, cultural factors, and systemic biases contribute to the underrepresentation of women.
- Explore the role and acceptance of feminatives in Russian Wikipedia and their impact on content and language inclusivity.
- Promote inclusivity by addressing harassment, bias, and structural obstacles that deter diverse participation.
- How does your session relate to the event theme, Wikimania@20 – Inclusivity. Impact. Sustainability?
Decreasing the gender gap will increase the projects' inclusivity and sustainability.
- What is the experience level needed for the audience for your session?
Everyone can participate in this session
Resources
Speakers
- Victoria
- Dr. Victoria Doronina is a biologist and a dedicated member of the Wikimedia community. Originally from Belarus, she earned her PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Edinburgh in 2001. Since 2006, Victoria had been an active contributor to the Russian Wikipedia, an ArbCom member and administrator and had participating in various Wikimedia projects, including Wikimedia Commons and Russian Wikinews. In 2021, Victoria was elected to the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees, where she contributes to the Community Affairs Committee, the Product and Technology Committee, and leads the Sister Projects Task Force. She was reappointed to the Board in 2024.