Ducks in a Row: The Bias of Wikipedia Editors
by Miki Saxon
Last year I had an argument over lunch with a woman friend who insisted that women in tech, especially in Silicon Valley, don’t face the same kind of difficulties career-wise that other women do.
She based her argument on the successful technical careers of a number of women friends and she became increasingly an4gry when I kept disagreeing with her.
I didn’t realize until several days later that we were both right.
Her friends did indeed build successful tech careers during the 1970s and 80s — predating the dot com era.
I, however, was focused on post dot com attitudes in the wake of the rise of bro culture.
Anyone around tech these days either recognizes the bias against women or lives in deep denial.
The latter apparently includes the editors in charge of Wikipedia, who didn’t think much of Donna Strickland’s work.
Prior to winning the Nobel Prize, Strickland’s only previous mention on Wikipedia was in an article about Gérard Mourou, her male co-inventor. On May 23, a Wikipedia editor rejected a draft of an article about Strickland, claiming that it failed to “show significant coverage (not just passing mentions) about the subject.” The rejected draft noted that she was at that time the associate chair of the physics department at Waterloo, and a past president of the Optical Society.
Not surprising when you consider that 90% of Wikipedia editors are young, college-educated males. Not a group exactly known for their pro-diversity stance.
As for Waterloo, Strickland says she never applied for a full professorship, but one has to wonder why the school didn’t notice her work.
Of course, if one is going to choose who notices their work, most would prefer the Nobel Committee to the editors of Wikipedia.
After the Prize was announced, Wikipedia finally created an article about Strickland.
But in what seems like an effort to disparage her accomplishment those same editors added a “personal life” section to her page.
Strickland is married to Douglas Dykaar, also a physicist.[7] They have two children.[7]
Information that is conspicuously absent from her male co-winner’s page.
Finally, the video on Strickland’s page talks about a childhood trip to a science fair, while Mourou’s features his post award speech.
How’s that for bias?
Image credit: Susan Young
