I would be really interested to see what the gender breakdown for paid vs volunteer content moderation. Does a site like Reddit, that uses a voluntary model, show the same discrepancy? My guess is...
I would be really interested to see what the gender breakdown for paid vs volunteer content moderation. Does a site like Reddit, that uses a voluntary model, show the same discrepancy? My guess is that it doesn't and I have a couple of ideas about why that might be. Disclaimer – the following is all speculation based on an unknown statistic.
First, moderation on reddit is visible. Mod usernames are listed in the sidebar and they can turn on a feature that alerts other users that they're mods doing mod work, which in turn highlights their contributions. I'm not saying that visibility doesn't cause problems nor that there's not a metric shit tonne of invisible work behind the scenes. I'm not even saying that those features have much to do with why people want to be mods in the first place. However, that visibility provides the opportunity for recognized prestige. In paid content moderation there's none of that – most of the time people have no idea that there's even a human doing the work, who the human is, or where they might be. When you report a comment or post on Facebook, it's all through a form and seemingly automated responses. There's nothing human about the interaction. The article notes that a word used in job ads for male dominated positions is "ambitious." There's no room for ambitious or gaining prestige in paid content moderation since no one even knows you're there.
The second reason is the relationship between remuneration and motivation. Studies have found that getting paid can actually decrease motivation. Women working as paid content moderators may be doing so out of necessity. That most of the respondents to the survey are 22-39 is telling– since those are the ages many women have young children it's possible that they're taking these positions because they can work from home and have flexible hours. Until we get to a point where it's more socially acceptable (or financially viable) for fathers to be the primary caregiver, jobs that allow people to work from home and choose their own hours are likely to be dominated by women.
I would be really interested to see what the gender breakdown for paid vs volunteer content moderation. Does a site like Reddit, that uses a voluntary model, show the same discrepancy? My guess is that it doesn't and I have a couple of ideas about why that might be. Disclaimer – the following is all speculation based on an unknown statistic.
First, moderation on reddit is visible. Mod usernames are listed in the sidebar and they can turn on a feature that alerts other users that they're mods doing mod work, which in turn highlights their contributions. I'm not saying that visibility doesn't cause problems nor that there's not a metric shit tonne of invisible work behind the scenes. I'm not even saying that those features have much to do with why people want to be mods in the first place. However, that visibility provides the opportunity for recognized prestige. In paid content moderation there's none of that – most of the time people have no idea that there's even a human doing the work, who the human is, or where they might be. When you report a comment or post on Facebook, it's all through a form and seemingly automated responses. There's nothing human about the interaction. The article notes that a word used in job ads for male dominated positions is "ambitious." There's no room for ambitious or gaining prestige in paid content moderation since no one even knows you're there.
The second reason is the relationship between remuneration and motivation. Studies have found that getting paid can actually decrease motivation. Women working as paid content moderators may be doing so out of necessity. That most of the respondents to the survey are 22-39 is telling– since those are the ages many women have young children it's possible that they're taking these positions because they can work from home and have flexible hours. Until we get to a point where it's more socially acceptable (or financially viable) for fathers to be the primary caregiver, jobs that allow people to work from home and choose their own hours are likely to be dominated by women.
So what can be done to reduce the imbalance?