2023-07-31 11:16:19
Seven years after it was deleted and sparked a public debate about the gender gap in Wikipedia, the entry ‘Hanna Capra’ was restored yesterday (Sunday) after a repeat vote was held among the site’s editors.
The debate about the value revolves around the central tension of the Wikipedian community in relation to the project: between ‘generalists’ who believe that the range of values and personalities worthy of value on the site should be expanded, and the ‘mimicking’ who believe that the value of the encyclopedia is also measured by the degree of selectivity in which it examines which figures and values are worthy of inclusion in the The encyclopedic canon.
In the vote that ended on September 26, 2016, it was decided to delete the entry by a majority of 47 editors with the right to vote, who believed that Kafra does not meet the rules of importance established in the project for writing about soldiers, against 29 editors who believed that the entry is important and deserves to remain.
Capra, a member of the Yemenite community from Rehovot, a member of the Haganah and a British Air Force employee, was one of the pioneers of the Israeli Air Force’s technical formation during the War of Independence, and one of the only two women who served in it in its early years. After five years of service, she was discharged from the corps with the rank of sergeant but continued to work there as an aircraft maintenance technician, a civilian working in the IDF for another 33 years until 1983. The entry about her was written by Assaf Oren already in 2016 as part of the project ‘Adding Value: Bringing Women Back to History’ , an academic project in which students from the Kibbutz College wrote biographical entries about women for Wikipedia, led by the historian Dr. Sharon Geva.
Only 19% of Wikipedia editors are women, and about 16% of biographies are of women
The Hebrew edition of the free encyclopedia Wikipedia is written and edited by over 3000 volunteer editors. However, writing an entry does not guarantee its existence in the long term: every year the editorial community conducts discussions on hundreds of entries and examines their importance and relevance to the encyclopedic project. In cases of a dispute that the editors are unable to settle in a simple discussion, a vote of importance is held, in which each editor may vote for more than 100 edits in the 90 days preceding its opening.
In the framework of the discussion on the question of the importance of the entry Hana Capra, who surfed from the site to the general media as well. In sharp opinion columns written by Dr. Geva VOfer Adrat In Time, the gender gap among Wikipedia editors came up for discussion. The Hebrew Wikipedia itself states, about the ‘gender gap in Wikipedia’, that the proportion of female editors in Hebrew is about 19%, and even less among the editors who have the right to vote (as of 2015). Also, the proportion of women’s biographies from the total number of biographies in the Hebrew edition in 2016 was only about 16.8-19%.
Although the Wikimedia association operates a variety of initiatives to increase diversity among writers, and to encourage women to join the project, Dr. Geva decided to remove her project from Wikipedia. Following the deletion of the entry, and lengthy deletion discussions about other entries by women, she made sure to upload deleted entries, including the entry on Hana Capra, for the feminist website ‘Political Calling.’
Editors at the Hebrew Wikipedia as part of the 20th edition celebrations (Photo: Nayla Trogsbetreger/Noa Photography / Wikimedia Israe)
“Don’t get confused, the issue here is not feminism but history“
Recently, after 14 editors with the right to vote requested it, it was decided about a week ago in the community of editors on the site, to raise the entry for further discussion of importance, and for a renewed vote. The renewed discussion arose after May of this year published Shulamit Farberartist and editors of the website ‘Political Readers’, a fanzine pamphlet she designed and tells the story of the value that was deleted and the public debate that arose around it, under the title ‘Lema mi zu Hana Kafra’.
In the end, 42 editors with the right to vote voted in favor of restoring the entry, and 25 voted against – a majority of 62.6% (full disclosure: the writer of these lines also voted in favor of restoring the entry). With the close of voting yesterday morning, the entry was re-uploaded on Wikipedia.
“This is about a very brave woman who, despite barely getting an education, picked herself up and was a partner in building the Haganah and the IDF at a time when not many women acted like her. It is appropriate that we mention her and her existence,” wrote the editor Hila Moon In a renewed conversation about the importance of value before the close of voting. “Many times women remain ‘almost equal’ for many years, in circumstances where men would have already been promoted. Perhaps they themselves do not ask for a promotion, perhaps they are busy raising their children, or say thanks for being given the right to engage in a ‘male’ profession at all and do not need ‘Honours’ in the form of rank. Maybe the society prioritizes the men around them, and more and more priestesses,” added the editor Kulli Alma in the discussion. “Since this is a pattern, in certain cases it is important that it does gain value and recognition. This is a specific case like that.”
“Please don’t get confused, the issue here is not feminism but history. No one put her in the Air Force to advance the status of women,” wrote editor Mi-Nahar, who noted that Air Force Museum curator Avi Moshe-Segal confirmed that Kafra was one of the only two women in the formation The technician of the young corps (next to Sharina Richtman). “When the Air Force was born, she was already a PAZman with experience in the British Royal Air Force. When the corps was built by volunteers from the Air Force who speak English, she is one of those who understand all languages in her words. In fact, the very fact that so few people who served in the first and secret core of the Air Force chose her, that says a lot. To claim that we don’t have primaries and pioneers in this field is a problem which shows disdain for the way that the first ones break through”.
“The change in the decision shows the community’s ability to make decisions according to its content and importance”
On the other hand, there were those who stood by their refusal to see importance in the value, including the veteran Wikipedia editor, David Shay, who wrote that alongside Capra served many more of the Air Force’s pioneers whose names are no longer even remembered, including those who held senior positions of its own. “Many streets in our country are named after personalities or issues that do not justify value, so the fact that a city’s streets are named after her is of no importance. The only reason why the value was created is an extreme affirmative preference for women’s values, which cannot be put up with.”
Dr. Sharon Geva told ‘Davar’ following the re-upload of the entry: “Thanks to Shulamit Farber, the discussion has been rekindled and the result is very gratifying. I hope this is a sign of continued manifestations of openness and equality, for women in general, especially these days.”
Itzik Adri, the chairman of the Wikimedia Israel association said: “Decisions about entries in Wikipedia are made by the community of editors and the discussions as well as the votes take place in an open and transparent manner on the conversation pages. The fact that the editors decided to change a previous decision after the entry was improved and rewritten shows the objective ability of the community to make decisions according to its content and importance.”
The erasure and reconstruction of the entry Hana Kafra may indicate a little about the way decisions are made in the cooperative-community project that seeks to make accessible ‘all human knowledge’ (to everyone in his own language and for free), about the communal processes that take place within it, and perhaps also about the way it changes and develops and the internal tensions and the debates that drive this development. The Hebrew Wikipedia, which celebrated its 20th anniversary just this month, grew during this period from slightly less than 200 thousand entries in 2016 to more than 338 thousand entries today. New volunteers have joined its ranks, others may have left – each editor brings to it the body of personal knowledge they carry with them, but also their attitudes and approach regarding the desired nature of the open encyclopedia that continues to develop.
Talk today every morning with your email
#subject #history #feminism #years #deleted #entry #Hana #Capra #returned #Wikipedia