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Article Evaluation-Gender Bias on Wikipedia

Article Neutrality

I do not think that the article is totally unbiased because it has a pretty heavy focus on criticizing Wikipedia. I read the article on the Holocaust and that is obviously more horrific than the gender gap on Wikipedia, but it was less biased. It also seems that most of the sources have a certain agenda.

Article Relevance

The sections are all relevant to the overall context of the article.

Citations

The links of the citations work, but as stated earlier they definitely have an agenda to prove a certain point. I don't necessarily think that all of the sources should point towards how wikipedia is gendered. Additionally, I do not feel the biasedness of the article is properly noted.

Talk Page

The talk page seems to be mostly citations. I did also notice that people seemed frustrated attempting to make edits and that it is a highly regulated page. It is probably good to have a regulated page but that presents different problems.

Article Rating

The article is rated as c-class and belongs to a number of different wiki projects including gender studies and feminism

Article Discussion

The article is a little bit different than ones we have discussed in class because it does not seem completely neutral. It is difficult to write neutrally about a topic that is inherently not neutral, but I think it could do a better job of stating the problem and not arguing how to fix the problems.

Editing a Wikipedia Article

American Basketball Association

Hardship Rule

One of the primary contributions of the ABA to modern NBA was the introduction of the Spencer Haywood Hardship Rule, which would later become the framework for the current NBA draft eligibility system that allows players to declare for the NBA after being one year removed from their high school graduation^[1]. The origin of the Hardship Rule was a result of the NCAA prohibiting players from becoming a professional athlete until they had completed their four years of college eligibility^[2][3]. The ABA was a league that frequently made up rules on the fly and was willing to push the envelope and determine the implications of the rules later.

In 1969 Spencer Haywood left the University of Detroit as a sophomore and signed with the Denver Rockets^[4]. The NCAA filed a lawsuit against the ABA claiming that Haywood should not be able to play professionally considering that he had not completed his four years of eligibility^[4]. The ABA believed that in extenuating circumstances, such as financial situation or familial needs, players should be able to leave for professional leagues early^[2]. While the NBA and NCAA initially contested the rule, after the courts ruled in favor of Haywood playing in the ABA, the NBA followed suit and relaxed the four year rule to allow for players to enter the league if they qualified as a hardship on the basis of “financial condition…family, [or] academic record.”^[5] Haywood paved the way for other players to enter the ABA before they had completed their collegiate careers such as George McGinnis and Julius Erving. Today, the one and done rule in the NBA can be traced back to the ABA’s decision to allow players to leave college early and pursue a professional career before they had completed their collegiate careers^[3].

Slam Dunk Contest

The ABA pioneered the advent of the now popular NBA slam dunk contest at the ABA All Star game in 1976^[6]. The game was held in Denver, and the owners of the ABA teams wanted to ensure that the event would be entertaining for the sellout crowd of 15,021 people^[2][6]. The ABA and NBA had begun to discuss a possible merger^[7], and the ABA owners wanted to establish the viability and success of their league^[2]. The Dunk Contenst operated as a means of unique halftime entertainment that displayed the style and excitement that the ABA players brought to the game. The dunk contest was held at halftime of the All-Star game and the contestants were Artis Gilmore, George Gervin, David Thompson, Larry Kenon, and Julius Erving^[6]. The winner of the contest received $1,000 and a stereo system^[2]. Julius Erving went on to win the competition by completing the now famous free throw line dunk.

The Gender Pay Gap in the United States Tech Industry

Possible Wikiprojects: WikiProject Economics, WikiProjects Feminism, WikiProject Gender Studies, WikiProject Women's History, WikiProject Business,

The gender pay gap in the United States tech industry is the discrepancy in pay for equal work completed by men and women, and while the industry is home to two of the three most innovative companies in the world, there is a disconnect between the innovation and equal pay.^[1] Despite applying for the same jobs at the same companies, 63% of the time women receive job offers that pay less than their male counterparts.^[2] The pay gap amongst tech companies is pervasive across the industry, and affects women in a multitude of different service lines such as computer programming and project management. State legislatures have begun to take action to solve the gender pay gap with California leading the way and looking to Iceland as a model to construct a successful law. The gap does not affect women of all races equally, and although diversity improves the quality of products, the wage gap discourages women, specifically those that are underrepresented minorities, from continuing to pursue opportunities in the technology industry. The pay gap in the tech industry is a result of a multitude of factors including lower initial offers and lack of negotiations.^[3] As the tech industry becomes more influential in the United States economy it will be important that firms offer equal pay for equal for equal work, and be intentional in constructing applicant pools that are more representative of the population at large. As research evolves the industry has been proactive in attempting to rectify the pay gap and companies such as Apple, Amazon, and Google have begun committing financial resources to eliminate the gap.

Statistics

Within the United States the gender wage gap in the tech industry can in many ways be linked to original offer sheets that women are presented; women receive salary offers less than that of men 63% of the time.^[2] The distribution of offers is not equal with an average of 4% less for women than men, but some organizations offer up to 45% less.^[2] However, the result of the gap is not just implicit sexism imposed by men as on 66% of occasions women ask for less money than their male counterparts.^[2] Constructing employment systems in which employees must ask for their wages leads to situations which women are receiving less pay despite the fact that they are completing the same job. The pay discrepancy continues to manifest itself as careers proceed because once women begin making less than men it continues throughout their careers.Another issue that has arisen in the tech industry is that women find out more often than men that a peer is paid at a higher rate. Only 19% of men surveyed had discovered that someone in the same position was paid more than them whereas 54% of women have had this discovery.^[2] The pay gap is different across industries within the tech industry with women in tech finance experiencing the smallest gap at 7% and women in education technology experiencing the largest gap at 10%. The gap is also different in the primary tech cities in the United States (San Francisco, New York, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Boston). Of the primary technology cities in the United States women in Seattle face largest wage gap at 11% and women in San Francisco face the smallest gap at 8%.^[2]

Criticism of the Gender Pay Gap

Despite research that indicates the hiring practices in the tech industry create a wage discrepancy between men and women, there are those that believe the gender wage gap is in fact a myth. Opponents of the wage gap claim that statistics are manipulated to present the data in a way that benefits the argument of a gender wage gap.^[4] Opponents further claim that the gap is a result of women’s choice to not pursue jobs that pay the same rate as their male counterparts which skews the data to create a bigger gap than actually exists. The belief that the pay gap is a myth typically ignores statistics that show women earn less than men even in the same positions at the same organizations. The gap is rationalized by highlighting that men choose more dangerous jobs or higher paying fields that allow for them to advance their earning potential.^[5] Research that disputes the gender pay gap relies almost entirely on voluntary choices to highlight that women are earning less as a function of their lack of exploring jobs that will see them make the same as their male counterparts. What the criticisms of the gender pay gap do not account for is that the candidate pools under represent women which keeps them from applying for the same jobs as men. In Los Angeles it is reported that in tech interview candidate pools women are underrepresented by 29%. The lack of representation inhibits women from earning the same salaries within organizations because they are not hired at the same rate, and when they are hired are less likely to negotiate salary.^[6]

Legislation

California Fair Pay Act

State legislatures are beginning to make strides to attempt to rectify the gender pay gap with California as a trailblazer: “California passed a law in late 2017 that no longer allows employers to ask job applicants about their prior salary. Plus, the employers must give applicants a pay range for the job they are seeking, if requested” (Hired). As one of the states that is home to several of the world’s most influential technology companies the law has the potential to begin fixing the gender pay gap in the industry. However, the law also states that employers are allowed to offer lower pay to different sexes if "the employer can show that any pay gap is justified by a factor other than sex, such as a system that determines pay based on quantity or quality of production or that resulted from differences in education, training or experience."^[7]California is attempting to make strides to rectify the gender pay gap, which will influence the technology industry, but there are gaps in the law. Implicit biases play a role in hiring and payment decisions so the language stating that pay can be different for "training or experience" may result in women being paid less because the biases could cause their experience to be valued as less significant than their male counterparts.

Icelandic Fair Pay Act

Members of the tech industry have pointed to Iceland as an example of how to implement law that effectively pays women and men equally for the same positions in organizations. At the beginning of 2018 a law that was passed in 2017 went into place and "is believed to be the first of its kind in the world and covers bot the private and public sectors."^[8] Unequal pay has been illegal in Iceland since 1961, but new law shifts the proof of fair pay from employers to employees. Iceland has instituted laws in the past to attempt to rectify the pay gap, and despite having "the best track record on gender equality in the world," the laws had not been successful in creating equal pay for equal work. Companies with over 25 employees will be reviewed every three years to confirm that they are paying men and women equally for equal work, and if they are not in compliance they will receive daily fines until they have reached compliance. While the law is intended to fix specifically gender inequity the lawmakers believe that it can also be applied for other marginalized groups such as race and sexual orientation.

The Tech Industry and Race

The wage gap is not confined to just a binary of men versus women as that ignores the intersectionality of employees. The wage gap exists for women of all ethnic backgrounds which highlights that there is a divide between the salaries of men and women, but the wages differ across races.^[2][9]Amongst white, black, Asian, and Hispanic workers, Asian men and white women compare the most favorably to white men. Black and Hispanic women have the largest gap of any of the surveyed groups, which indicates that race plays an important role in the wage gap. Technology companies must work to understand that they have to alter their hiring practices to promote equal wages for women, but they most be aware enough to realize that not all women are even paid the same rates.

Organizations should strive to be intentional with their hiring practices so that they have talent pools that are more representative. Currently, minorities are underrepresented in the interview process at 6%, and receive lower salary offers.^[2] However, Hispanic and black men still receive higher offer than their female counterparts of the same race. Without considering the intersectionality of people firms may miss that it is important to evaluate hiring practices of the whole person and not just correct for race or gender in a silo.^[9] Correcting just for race will perpetuate situations in which black and Hispanic men continue to make more than their female counterparts, but correcting just for gender will continue to allow white women to earn more than all groups but Asian and white men. Corrections that avoid binaries can help to reduce siloed hiring practices that attempt to fix one issue at a time rather than a multifaceted approach.

The Pay Gap and Younger Women

The pay gap affects younger women the most and manifests itself with the largest pay gap amongst ages. Women under 25 earn 29% less than their male counterparts, but reduces to 5% for employees over the age of 50. The advent of the personal computer created more barriers to entry for women as the marketing of personal computers was primarily directed at young boys. The marketing strategy led to computers being associated with men, which played in a role in associating computer based jobs with men rather than women. The marketing helps to explain why women comprise only 23% of computer programmers. The past strategies of organizations have inherently limited the number of women that pursue careers in technology, and when they due they ask for smaller salaries creating a fissure in wages. Technology companies have to work to adapt how they market their products to not exclude the use of women which can result in a lack of women in the candidate pool which eventually plays a role in women seeking smaller salaries than their male counterparts.

Gender Pay Disputes

Google

In 2017 a spreadsheet was distributed amongst Google employees that details the discrepancy in pay between male and female employees. The spreadsheet details that the salary and bonuses paid out at all levels of the organization favor men. Tech companies have continued to garner more importance and sway in the United States economy, but despite the open cultures there is a growing fear that "Silicon Valley has established itself as the boys' club of the west, just like how Wall Street has established itself as the boys' club of the East."^[10] THe spreadsheet circulated around Google is incomplete because it only evaluates the salaries and bonuses of 1200 employees. The data may be incomplete, but it paints a picture of a potentially more sweeping issue within Google that has been apparent in similar organizations in the tech industry. The reported pay gap led to a lawsuit filed against Google claiming that women who work as engineers, managers, sales, and early childhood education positions are systematically paid less at the firm. Google has been proactive in responding to the critiques and conducted a comprehensive audit of their organization to attempt to rectify the pay gap in the company. Their research concluded that 228 employees were underpaid and raised their compensation, which resulted in a $270,000 cost for Google.^[11]