#SheSaid 5th Edition Interviews: [#5 Masana Mulaudzi]

As we continue our series of interviews with key figures for the #SheSaid 2024 campaign, we are thrilled to introduce Masana Mulaudzi, a prominent member of the feminist movement from South Africa. Currently serving as the Senior Manager of Campaigns Programs at the Wikimedia Foundation, Masana has been at the forefront of advocating for gender equality and empowering marginalized voices.

Could you tell us about yourself?

My name is Masana Mulaudzi, and I am currently the Senior Manager of Campaigns Programs at the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit that supports Wikipedia and other free knowledge projects. I am from Johannesburg, South Africa, where I live with my beloved daughter Elikia. I am an active contributor and volunteer in the feminist movement globally, and for the past 15 years I’ve been working to support and build up the resiliency of global movements to respond to some of the great challenges and opportunities of our time through the lens and ethic of mutual care and solidarity. 

Could you tell us about your role as Senior Manager of Campaigns Programs at the Wikimedia Foundation and how it intersects with initiatives like #SheSaid?

The #SheSaid campaign is one of the most exciting campaigns in our movements, to elevate and make visible the intellectual contributions and thought leadership of women around that world. #SheSaid contributes to building up a knowledge base that reflects the contribution women make to society globally, which is often overlooked.  The Wikimedia Foundation’s Campaigns Programs team supports organizers in our movement to build and scale the impact of their campaigns to address knowledge equity. We hope to support #SheSaid through providing access to tooling and programme design support, collaborations and resources that can advance knowledge equity (and gender equity specifically). Over the past year, the Campaigns team has focused its efforts on providing programmatic, tooling and strategic support to organizers working on the gender gap. We hope that through this support, we can support our movement in growing the content, contributors and solidarity for gender gap efforts going forward. 

What strategies does the Wikimedia Foundation have in place to ensure more inclusive and diverse campaigns, both in terms of content and participation?

We have many streams of work devoted to advancing knowledge equity, inclusion and diversity. We welcome everyone who shares in our mission, and believe that “[t]o build the sum of all knowledge, we need to embrace human diversity.” Our inclusive practices cut across all Wikimedia Foundation workstreams and priorities. Below are a few examples:

Our values, the Movement Strategy, and the consultative annual planning process form the bedrock of our strategy to support inclusivity and diversity in our movement and our work. 

In line with these guiding documents and principles, over the past few years some of the work we have supported to advance inclusion and diversity, includes:

• The Organizer Lab, focusing on gender and sustainability, to advance targeted support to organizers looking to improve their skills and practice for community engagement.
• The Inclusive Product Playbook  is used by our Product teams to check if their practices welcome members of the community with diverse experiences, ensure their processes and practices are inclusive and equitable.
• The provision of community resources for campaigns focused on the recruitment and retention of newcomers from diverse backgrounds in our movement.
• The co-facilitation of movement learning spaces, such as Let’s Connect, to ensure broad engagement and knowledge sharing across our community of volunteers.
• Consultative annual planning discussions, engaging across regions and in multiple platforms to hear from different community members on our collective vision and mission for the work of the Foundation. 

In your view, how has the #SheSaid campaign contributed to addressing gender gaps on Wikimedia platforms, particularly Wikiquote?

I believe that #SheSaid is an important knowledge equity campaign in our movement in the gender domain and bridging the gender gap for contributors.

It has become a pillar of inclusive campaigning in our movement. Their focus on easier-to-access projects like Wikiquote, facilitating editing and contribution activity makes it easy for new contributors to participate in our movement. What do you see as the biggest successes of the #SheSaid campaign since its inception, and how does it align with Wikimedia Foundation’s broader goals?

As mentioned above, the focus on accessible tasks for newcomers and experienced editors drive our ability to close the gender gap in contributors and content. The Wikimedia Foundation is committed to advancing gender equity in our movement, and #SheSaid has helped us understand the best orientation of tasks for contributions in the gender gap space. 

What role does the Wikimedia Foundation play in supporting grassroots efforts like #SheSaid, and how can local organizers leverage Foundation resources for greater impact?

The Foundation provides an array of support to campaigns like #SheSaid. We hope to be able to support the campaign organizers at the grassroots level access, shape and utilize improved campaign tools like the event registration, event invitation, and collaboration list. Beyond this, we continue to provide community resources to organizers and applicants who meet the minimum criteria. Moving forward, we hope that #SheSaid grassroots campaign organizers will access ongoing support from the Foundation in campaign design, peer learning spaces and partnership activation.

What metrics or indicators does the Wikimedia Foundation use to measure the success of campaigns like #SheSaid?

The Foundation does not directly measure the success of campaigns like #SheSaid, unless these are captured in grant applications that include metrics that applicants provide to us. Nevertheless, we are following metrics in content creation, newcomer activation, diversity and participation. 

How does the Wikimedia Foundation support the creation of content in underrepresented languages, especially when it comes to documenting women’s voices?

We provide support to multilingual content creation through the development of tools and processes that can increase the ability of community members to translate content for their local audiences. For example, this year the Foundation is exploring a hypothesis to make translation-related recommendations to editors on crucial topical areas – to ensure that a broader spectrum of contributors can close knowledge gaps.

From a leadership perspective, what challenges have you encountered in fostering gender diversity across Wikimedia platforms, and how have you addressed them?

Our movement is representative of the many challenges with advancing gender equity that exist in society. Mainstreaming gender-inclusive norms and practices is synonymous with addressing structural challenges: 

• making the contributions and documentation about notable women and non-binary people visible, as well as the topics that they care about;
• addressing the need for safe and welcoming spaces for women and non-binary people to contribute online; 
• collectively addressing harmful norms and beliefs about women and non-binary people (and their role in society); 
• and making it a shared priority of all Wikimedians to facilitate gender diversity and inclusivity.

As with the African proverb, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time”, addressing gender equity requires that we take incremental, but meaningful and accountable steps towards our goals. Last year, we spent significant time listening and experimenting with different tools, programmatic and strategic approaches including supporting the WikiWomen Summit at Wikimania and the WikiWomen Camp. This year, we want to ensurevthe strategic gains taken last year are representative of the diversity of women and non-binary people in our movement, and that the strategic priorities identified include as many voices and shared ownership as possible. Other priorities include ongoing efforts to support organizers working on gender to access tools and programme support, community resources and peer learning spaces to advance their work.

What is your favorite women-empowering quote?

One of my recent favourite quotes is by American poet, Audre Lorde: “When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”

Read more about the campaign and the fifth edition in our #SheSaid 2024 Launch diff and don’t forget to follow us on social media:

• Website: www.wikiloveswomen.org
• Twitter: @Wikiloveswomen
• Instagram: @WikiLovesWomen
• Facebook Page: @WikiLovesWomen
• Facebook Group: Mind The Gender Gap
• Telegram Group: WikiGenderGap