User:RocketTestPilot/List of featured biographical articles by gender identity

This list of featured biographical articles by gender identity organizes the Wikipedia's featured articles about historic individuals into separate sections by gender identity, and then applies the format used on the primary list of featured articles to each of these section.

All featured articles are carefully selected by Wikipedia's editors. Each one has been, is currently, or will be displayed one at a time in a prominent position on Wikipedia's main page every day.

Usages for This List

Readers

Prior Utility

Wikipedia's readers already can use featured articles as a recommended reading list that curates articles from across all of Wikipedia, ostensibly providing the full diversity of Wikipedia's content narrowed down to the very best quality and then categorized by subject for browsing convenience.

Readers who are evaluating Wikipedia itself can use the featured articles, along with their selection process, to compliment their description of average article quality with an informed assessment of what Wikipedia strives toward.

Extended Utility

Recognizing that people commonly want to learn more about historic individuals with whom they can relate, this list enables readers to use featured articles to quickly find high-quality articles about possible role models who share their gender identity. Alternatively, it may be used by readers who wish to learn about individuals who are different from themselves on that basis. Still others may wish to browse by gender identity so that they can have a balanced representation of gender identities in their work.

Separating by gender identity also allows evaluators of Wikipedia to efficiently research the possibility of sexism in the selection process by seeing what featured biographies are nominated and selected, and then comparing their findings to the Wikipedia:Featured article criteria.

Editors

Prior Utility

Editors are already motivated by the prospect of having their submissions nominated and eventually chosen to be featured articles. This also incentivizes their adoption of Wikipedia's community-developed policies and guidelines.

The featured articles are also explicitly intended to be "used by editors as examples for writing other articles."Wikipedia contributors (10 November 2014 04:00 UTC). "Wikipedia:Featured articles". Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 November 2014 23:06 UTC. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help); Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)</ref> Featured articles are signifiers of credibility and status, which means that authors of featured articles inherently have more influence within the the democratic structures of Wikipedia. This would include the selection of which articles become featured, and thereby who else is granted the internal political benefits of featured article authorship.

Extended Utility

This list provides the editing community with another way of identifying positive contributions that can be made to Wikipedia. Within any subject category, an unrealistic or imbalanced ratio of male to female to transgender biographies is likely to represent an overlooked gap of important articles waiting to be written or improved.

It also offers way of measuring implicit attitudes about gender identity within the featured article selection process or criteria, which is useful for the community's ongoing methodological reflection and amendment. This helps the community pursue founder Jimmy Wales' call to "maintain and improve our quality standards, while at the same time remaining open, friendly, and welcoming as a community," Terdiman, Daniel (January 1, 2005). "Wikipedia Faces Growing Pains". Wired News. Retrieved 2013-10-23. {{cite news}}: Text "date" ignored (help) and make specific changes that answer co-founder Larry Sanger's more critical observation that "administrators and ordinary participants alike are able essentially to act abusively with impunity, which begets a never-ending cycle of abuse."Bogatin, Donna (March 25, 2007). "Can Wikipedia handle the truth?". ZDNet. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 2013-10-23.