User:Ju menendez/Evaluate an Article

Evaluate an article

 * Name of article: (Dalit feminism)
 * I have chosen to evaluate this article because gender inequality is an important and relevant topic across the globe today, specifically in the wake of rising feminism sentiments, as demonstrated for instance by the international #MeToo Movement. I am curious about gender relations in India, but more specifically, about gender relations among India's already marginalized social group, the Dalit caste, and efforts being made to address these.

Lead
Guiding questions


 * Does the Lead include an introductory sentence that concisely and clearly describes the article's topic?
 * Does the Lead include a brief description of the article's major sections?
 * Does the Lead include information that is not present in the article?
 * Is the Lead concise or is it overly detailed?

Lead evaluation
The Lead includes an introductory sentence that is straight-forward and clear. However, rather than describing the article's topic, it simply defines 'Dalit feminism.' While it accomplishes this in a clear and concise way, the term is already quite self-explanatory, and is defined using the very words of 'dalit' and 'feminism,' so it is not so informative. The rest of the Lead is properly informative of the rest of the article, and adequately concise. It contextualizes on the location of where Dalit women live, summarizes what differentiates Dalit women from women of other castes, and briefly touches on advocacy efforts that have been made to address the rights of Dalit women. I noticed a couple of incoherences between the Lead and the rest of the article. Firstly, though the Lead mentions Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka., its contents only elaborate on India, Nepal, and Pakistan. Also, while the Lead addresses current Dalit women advocacy movements, the article contrarily mentions that many feminist and caste-based advocacy efforts actually ignore the uniquely marginalized position of Dalit women.

Content
Guiding questions


 * Is the article's content relevant to the topic?
 * Is the content up-to-date?
 * Is there content that is missing or content that does not belong?

Content evaluation
The article's content is relevant to the topic and is up-to-date; however, the information provided is very surface-level. For instance, though the article lists a variety of efforts to address Dalit women's rights--including resolutions, prominent figures/sources of inspiration, conferences-- it does so without going into much detail, or adequately addressing the scope of the impact of these efforts on Dalit women. Furthermore, quantitative data is quite scarce throughout the article, limiting the article's ability to properly contextualize and illustrate the conditions of Dalit women and changes of these conditions throughout time.

One phrase that stood out as not belonging in this article is: "In addition, there is a hierarchy among Dalit groups, with some Dalits being higher up on the social scale than others." This line is irrelevant in informing specifically on Dalit women, and would more properly fit in the article for the Dalit caste in general. One statistic also stood out as out-dated: "Most of the Dalit women in Pakistan live in the Punjab region, according to a 1998 census."

Tone and Balance
Guiding questions


 * Is the article neutral?
 * Are there any claims that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
 * Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
 * Does the article attempt to persuade the reader in favor of one position or away from another?

Tone and balance evaluation
The article is neutral, and names specific organizations/conferences/people to demonstrate the scope to which Dalit feminism is being addressed. In doing so, however, the article focuses only on the perspectives of Dalit women. Are there other people--perhaps Indian women of other castes, or maybe even people of entirely another country--who are also advocating for Dalit women rights? On another note, because Indian culture and society (especially the caste system) is so unique, it may also be important to consider and include whether feminism is theorized differently in India than in the West.

I also noticed that when the article includes quantitative data, it does so in a limited way by failing to contextualize the data relative to another group/country. For instance, the article states, "In Nepal, a study conducted in 2013 found that 50.6% of Dalit women faced daily forms of violence." How does this compare to the violence faced by non-Dalit women? It may also be valuable to consider: How does this percentage compare to the violence faced by Dalit women in other countries? Considering these other data gives value to this quantitative statement.

Under the heading titled 'History', the article is significantly heavier when focusing on the sub-heading of India. This is probably because the greatest population of Dalit women live in India. In this respect, it would be valuable and clarifying to compare the population of Dalit women in India to that of other countries.

Lastly, as previously mentioned, the article is very heavily focused on listing current efforts that address Dalit feminism, but lacks in detailing the impact of these.

Sources and References
Guiding questions


 * Are all facts in the article backed up by a reliable secondary source of information?
 * Are the sources thorough - i.e. Do they reflect the available literature on the topic?
 * Are the sources current?
 * Check a few links. Do they work?

Sources and references evaluation
All of the facts are backed up by reliable secondary sources. However, as previously mentioned, the article lacks in providing substantial quantitative data. For instance, the article claims that Dalit women are more likely to be poor and uneducated, but does not provide illiteracy rate or other statistics as evidence for this statement. Regardless, the sources are appropriate, thorough and, for the most part, current--though there could be more recent literature included to updated the heading of 'Today'. The links that I checked correctly worked.

Organization
Guiding questions


 * Is the article well-written - i.e. Is it concise, clear, and easy to read?
 * Does the article have any grammatical or spelling errors?
 * Is the article well-organized - i.e. broken down into sections that reflect the major points of the topic?

Organization evaluation
The article language is clear and concise, however it lacks coherence, thus making it a little difficult to read. The major reason for the lack of coherence is because the article includes so many facts (predominantly past efforts to address Dalit women rights) without specifying on each, or the impact of each. Thus, though properly organized chronologically, the article becomes a list of many facts/resolutions/organizations/conferences, with limited depth of each to captivate the reader.

I found the first two paragraphs of "Background" especially disorganized, because it provides scattered information, with little to no coherence to tie the information/statements together. The information provided here could be better presented if separated in different paragraphs based on a common aspect/country. For instance, paragraphs could be organized based on: different kinds of violence experienced, different groups of people inflicting violence on Dalit women (ie. the article mentions men, Dalit men, British colonists), etc.)

For the most part, the article sections are adequately chosen to reflect the major points of the topic. If there was a specific event/organization that is spearheading Dalit feminism, this could deserve its own heading. Instead, the article only lists the many events/organizations/etc under the section 'History.' Furthermore, the section titled 'Literature' seems a little random. The impact of literature on Dalit women/feminism should be more thoroughly addressed in order for the section to fit in with more sense.

One small error i found involved the misplacement of a comma: "...(KSPWSC) ,held a 2017 conference..."

Images and Media
Guiding questions


 * Does the article include images that enhance understanding of the topic?
 * Are images well-captioned?
 * Do all images adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations?
 * Are the images laid out in a visually appealing way?

Images and media evaluation
The article includes two images--neither of which are valuable in enhancing the understanding of the topic. The first photo, for instance, is captioned with ' Aathi Thamilar Peravai' --which is not referenced anywhere in the Article.

Checking the talk page
Guiding questions


 * What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?
 * How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?
 * How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?

Talk page evaluation
There is no conversations going on in the talk page.

The article is rated C-class and is part of multiple WikiProjects: Feminism, Ethnic groups, Nepal, Pakistan, Women's History.

The discussion of this topic is very limited and factual. In comparison, in class, we have looked at an actual first hand account of the experience of a Dalit woman through Viramma's narration.

Overall impressions
Guiding questions


 * What is the article's overall status?
 * What are the article's strengths?
 * How can the article be improved?
 * How would you assess the article's completeness - i.e. Is the article well-developed? Is it underdeveloped or poorly developed?

Overall evaluation
Overall, the article is quite weak and limited. Though the article mentions a variety of Dalit feminist efforts (including conferences/prominent figures/resolutions), these are touched on very superficially, and insufficient information on the conditions and changes in the conditions of Dalit women are described. Thus, I would assess the article's completeness as underdeveloped. Centering the article on specific efforts that have had significant impacts on Dalit women's rights (if these even exist!) would improve the article.

Optional activity

 * Choose at least 1 question relevant to the article you're evaluating and leave your evaluation on the article's Talk page. Be sure to sign your feedback

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