User:GRuban/Gender Gap

Attempting to answer a question asked on Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Countering systemic bias/Gender gap task force - Do women write about women? Let's see. Here is Wikipedia:Featured articles#Literature and theatre biographies and the name of the editor who nominated each for FA, with (apparent) gender of each, determined either by name, or user preferences via Template:he or she, where set.

1. Chinua Achebe, male; User:Scartol, male. (Eric S. Piotrowski)
2. Mário de Andrade, male; User: Chick Bowen, male (he)
3. Maya Angelou, female; User: Christine (Figureskatingfan), female (she)
4. Augusta, Lady Gregory, female; User:Filiocht, no guess (he or she)
5. James Robert Baker, male; User:Jeffpw, male
6. Honoré de Balzac, male; User:Scartol, male.
7. Ann Bannon, female; User:Moni3, female (she)
8. Anna Laetitia Barbauld, female; User:Awadewit, female (Adrianne Wadewitz, R.I.P.)
9. Natalie Clifford Barney, female; User:Celithemis, no guess (he or she)
10. Enid Blyton, female; User:Eric Corbett, male
11. Cædmon, male; User:Daniel.odonnell, male
12. Neville Cardus, male; User:Brianboulton, male
13. Rachel Carson, female; User:Ragesoss, male
14. Anton Chekhov, male; User:Qp10qp, no guess (he or she)
15. Colley Cibber, male; User:Geogre, male
16. Brunette Coleman, male; User:Brianboulton, male
17. Noël Coward, male; User:Ssilvers, no guess (he or she)
18. Stephen Crane, male; User:Yllosubmarine, female (María)
19. John Day (printer), male; User:PRiis, male (Peter Riis)
20. Emily Dickinson, female; User:Yllosubmarine, female
21. Du Fu, male; User:Markalexander100, aka User:Henry Flower, male
22. Early life of Samuel Johnson, male; User:Ottava Rima, male (called "he" on his ban appeal)
23. Edmund Evans, male; User:Truthkeeper88 aka User:Victoriaearle, female
24. Zelda Fitzgerald, female; User:JayHenry, male
25. Ian Fleming, male; User:SchroCat, male (user page)
26. Stella Gibbons, female; User:Brianboulton, male
27. William Gibson, male; User:Skomorokh, no guess (he or she)
28. W. S. Gilbert, male; User:Vanished User, male (long story ... you can find the original username with a bit of work)
29. Joseph Grimaldi, male; User:Cassianto, male (he)
30. Rufus Wilmot Griswold, male; User:Midnightdreary, male (userbox)
31. Richard Hakluyt, male; User:Jacklee, male
32. Amir Hamzah, male; User:Crisco 1492, male (he)
33. H.D., female; User:Filiocht, no guess (he or she)
34. Ernest Hemingway, male; User:Truthkeeper88 aka User:Victoriaearle, female
35. George Herriman, male; User:Curly Turkey, male (user page)
36. Georgette Heyer, female; User:Karanacs, female (Karen)
37. Stanley Holloway, male; User:Cassianto, male
38. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., male; User:Midnightdreary, male
39. E. W. Hornung, male; User:SchroCat, male
40. Israel the Grammarian, male; User:Dudley Miles, male
41. Joseph Johnson (publisher), male; User:Awadewit, female
42. Samuel Johnson, male; User:Ottava Rima, male
43. James Joyce, male; User:Filiocht, no guess
44. Franz Kafka, male; User:PumpkinSky, male (he)
45. Lat, male; User:Jappalang, male (userbox)
46. John Le Mesurier, male; User:SchroCat, male
47. Dan Leno, male; User:Cassianto, male
48. Lie Kim Hok, male; User:Cassianto, male
49. Little Tich, male; User:Cassianto, male
50. Marie Lloyd, female; User:Cassianto, male
51. James Russell Lowell, male; User:Midnightdreary, male
52. Nigel Kneale, male; User:Angmering, male (Paul)
53. H. C. McNeile, male; User:SchroCat, male
54. Bruno Maddox, male; User:BillDeanCarter, male
55. Olivia Manning, female; User:Slp1, female (user page)
56. Francis Marrash, male; User:Bryan P. C. C., male
57. Master Juba, male; User:Dulcem, no guess (he or she)
58. Nancy Mitford, female; User:Brianboulton, male
59. George Moore (novelist), male; User:Filiocht, no guess
60. George Robey, male; User:Cassianto, male
61. Murasaki Shikibu, female; User:Truthkeeper88 aka User:Victoriaearle, female
62. Elaine Paige, female; User:Eagle Owl, male (userbox)
63. Philitas of Cos, male; User:Eubulides, no guess (he or she)
64. Harold Pinter, male; User:Jezhotwells, male (he)
65. Edgar Allan Poe, male; User:Raul654, male (probably renominating for User:Midnightdreary, male)
66. Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe, female; User:Midnightdreary, male
67. Ezra Pound, male; User:Victoriaearle, female
68. Adelaide Anne Procter, female; User:Ricardiana, female (she)
69. Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo, male; User:Lemurbaby, female (user page)
70. Ion Heliade Rădulescu, male; User:Eurocopter, male (he)
71. Reception history of Jane Austen, female; User:Awadewit, female
72. Talbot Baines Reed, male; User:Brianboulton, male
73. Ralph Richardson, male; User:Tim riley, male
74. J. K. Rowling, female; User:Serendipodous, male (he or she)
75. Olivia Shakespear, female; User:Truthkeeper88, female
76. William Shakespeare, male; User:Qp10qp, no guess
77. Mary Shelley, female; User:Awadewit, female
78. Mary Martha Sherwood, female; User:Awadewit, female
79. Christopher Smart's asylum confinement, male; User:Ottava Rima, male
80. John Millington Synge, male; User:Filiocht, no guess
81. Rabindranath Tagore, male; User:Saravask, male (he)
82. J. R. R. Tolkien, male; User:Judgesurreal777, male (user page/about me)
83. Sarah Trimmer, female; User:Awadewit, female
84. Mario Vargas Llosa, male; User:Jbmurray, male (Jon Beasley-Murray)
85. Hugh Walpole, male; User:Tim riley, male
86. Evelyn Waugh, male; User:Brianboulton, male
87. Nathaniel Parker Willis, male; User:Midnightdreary, male
88. Mary Wollstonecraft, female; User:Kaldari, male (Ryan Kaldari)
89. W. B. Yeats, male; User:Filiocht, no guess

Male editors nominated 47 male subject articles, and 10 female subject articles.

Female editors nominated 13 female subject articles, and 6 male subject articles.

Undetermined editors nominated 3 female subject articles and 10 male subject articles.

It looks like female editors nominate considerably more articles about female subjects, while male (and undetermined) editors nominate considerably more articles about male subjects. --GRuban (talk) 02:20, 8 September 2014 (UTC)

2021

Towards the end of last year, discussing a Wikipedia Signpost essay on articles about women, User:Jason Quinn asked an important question:

When the topic of gender bias comes up and people mention the "gender gap" and how "only 18%" of our articles are about women, it begs the question be asked, "What percentage should it be?" A kneejerk reaction might suggest 50%... but that can't be right since society HAS been severely biased against women, especially pre-1900 as this article states. Historically (and still currently in many places) women simply were expected to be more domestic which kept them from being in positions where they could do something encyclopedic. Given that that is true, it makes no sense to expect 50% of our articles to be about women. So what percentage should it be?

He was, broadly speaking, shot down for being a troll, but there is something to be said for having a goal to aim for. I recently realized this study can be used as a first approximation for that.

Specifically, in the figures above, male editors had 82% of their article nominations about male subjects, female editors had 68% about female subjects, and undetermined gender editors had 77% about male subjects. The total is 63 male subject articles, and 26 female subject articles, 71% male, 29% female subjects (already better than the 18% Jason writes about). However, we can extrapolate that if we had an equal number of male and female featured article nominators, we would have 57% articles about male subjects, 43% articles about female subjects. That is the difference that is the result of the editor gender gap. That can be our goal. There are caveats, of course, this only looked at featured article nominations, only 89 of those, way back in 2014, maybe the reason female editors nominated so many female subjects was specifically part of an effort to correct the gender gap, etc. But, I humbly submit, it's a good first order approximation. --GRuban (talk) 17:41, 15 July 2021 (UTC)