New research on the gender gap in the Spanish Wikipedia: an interpretative phenomenological analysis of solidarity amongst female Ibero-American translators

Posted on 21 August 2024

Dr Gustavo Góngora-Goloubintseff, Associate Lecturer in our department, has co-authored a paper with Dr Néstor Singer (Universidad de Santiago de Chile) that investigates the gender gap on Wikipedia, the world’s largest encyclopaedia. Focusing on the Spanish edition of the platform, the study examines the extent to which solidarity amongst six female Ibero-American translators plays a crucial role in re-narrating women’s biographies and fighting harassment and oppression. Drawing on interpretative phenomenological analysis, the results of this collaborative research suggest that the participants view solidarity as a transformative activity whereby they collectively unite to promote equality and bridge the gender gap on Wikipedia, where only 20% of the articles are about women. Moreover, translation was widely regarded as a means to increase the number of women’s articles and to re-narrate the existing ones, which are often written from a male perspective. The article can be found in the latest issue of The International Journal of Translation and Interpreting Research.

“This study is important not only because it contributes to enhancing our understanding of volunteer translation, but also because it seeks to shed light on the barriers that women face on Wikipedia and which have been echoed in the media. To our knowledge, these challenges have not yet been addressed in translation studies. For example, previous research on Wikipedia translation has focused primarily on the translators’ motivations and how changes to translated content are negotiated within Wikipedia. Our participants have brought in a new perspective, creating awareness of the hurdles they have to overcome and how they come together as a group to rescue women’s articles that are unjustly marked for deletion.” – Dr Gustavo Góngora-Goloubintseff