Mind the Gap! An interpretative phenomenological analysis of solidarity among Ibero-American female translators in the Spanish Wikipedia

Abstract

As one of the most popular websites in the world, Wikipedia’s success has long resided in the fact that anyone can contribute to this repository of human knowledge. However, behind this democratisation and wisdom-of-the-crowd initiative lie some entrenched inequalities and biases. Most Wikipedia’s regular contributors are men from the Global North, which has led to much criticism and speculation. Consequently, the user-generated encyclopaedia has often been accused of both portraying women from a male perspective and downplaying their professional achievements. Against this background, this paper explores the narratives of six experienced female Latin and Ibero-American editors that have been actively involved in the translation of women’s biographies in the Spanish Wikipedia. Drawing on interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), this study seeks to ascertain the role of female editors-translators and how they perceive solidarity in the context of their work in the encyclopaedia. Our findings indicate that the participants view solidarity as a transformative activity whereby they collectively unite to promote equality, protect one another against harassment and oppression, and re-narrate women’s biographies. Moreover, although most participants did not identify as translators, translation was widely regarded as a means to increase the number of women’s articles on Wikipedia and help bridge the gender gap.