The correct answer is: yes, and in a similar nature to much of the written/internet-published English-speaking world that is.
That makes it right and okay, doesn't it? I mean, Wikipedia is doing no worse than other aspects of society. It's not out leading lynch posses or sending around postcards of watermelons on the White House lawn. Besides, who cares if some online bunch of whatever put there by whomever doesn't treat people of color with as much loving care as it treats living white men, especially the ones who share the worldview and characteristics of the majority of its Wikimaintainers? This two-year old article from Alter.Net is one of the top websearch resources on this topic. In it, Joi Ito was quoted as referring to the distribution of male vs. female Wikipedia chroniclers two years before that - in 2004.
Wikipedia seems much more gender balanced than the blogging community ... I wonder what causes this difference in gender distribution? Is it that the power law aspect of blogs is inherently more competitive and appeals to the way men are "trained" in society? Or is it that we're just talking to the "head" of the blog curve and that the more interesting blogs are actually by women in "the long tail"? Or is it something about Wikipedia that attracts powerful women?
Today, one of the top female blogs is Pioneer Woman. And I find it almost surreal that Ito would refer to female Wikipedia contributors as "powerful." Ten months after the Alter.Net article (receiving lots of comments, nearly all predictably of the "shut up, I'm right" and "don't make trouble where there is one" and "you're an idiot and WikiChix suck" variety), this chirrupy commentary concluded that the blogosphere was not primarily male dominated based on a series of scientifically-conducted counts of blogs, topics and genders of contributors.
Wikipedia breaks down the same as everything else, no matter what commentators say. The first mention of a female on Wikipedia's main page as of today, March 7, 2009, is down on the left hand-column, where it first mentions actress Brenda Scott (no Wikipedia link) and Andrew Prine (Wikipedia link) who were in real life, a married couple, starring as a brother and sister in a 1960's NBC television series. The very last entry of "recently updated" Wikipedia entries says that fashion model Frankie Rayder appeared in Gap ads with her sisters.
I'm going to refer to Octavia Butler, because she went out in front so many times, on so many occasions. It looks like she's had quite a bit of Wiki-attention, and her entry is factual and relatively comprehensive. The earliest you can see edits from her entry is 2003, and I am sure the entry predates these edits that show today. Since that time, her entry has been revised approximately 500 times. Now we turn to Larry Niven, a sci-fi author whose entry is similar to Octavia Butler's - in one regard. Larry's page contains tremendous reference to his ideas - in specifics. His revisions are far more content-based than those observable on Octavia Butler's page. All in all, however, these two entries are very similar, in history and in current appearance. The big difference? I LOVE Larry Niven - but culturally and historically, and even idea-wise, Octavia Butler is by far the more influential writer. It's not that her entry should be "bigger," it's that it should be bigger idea-wise. And with everything that Octavia wrote and did, it's the exact same. Fair and balanced and nonsexist, nonracist, right? Not.
Viewed in another manner, the only reason Sheri S. Tepper's Wikipedia entry is longer than Bud Webster's is that Sheri has published a significant body of work.
It's like this. Obama has to become President to be "noticed" and treated seriously. Octavia Butler had to be that MacArthur genius to get an entry equivalent to Larry Niven's. And Sheri S. Tepper had to publish her extensive body of work to get a similar entry to Bud Webster - who most people reading this would have absolutely no idea of who he is, and for very excellent reason. And it's also related to this. And this. Whoever has the biggest gun, and whoever yells the loudest.
