Mind the Gap! an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Solidarity Among Ibero-American Female Translators in the Spanish Wikipedia

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. © 2024 University of Western Sydneys. All rights reserved.