{"id":1533,"date":"2021-03-09T08:58:45","date_gmt":"2021-03-09T13:58:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/hsslibrary\/?p=1533"},"modified":"2022-03-24T14:01:02","modified_gmt":"2022-03-24T18:01:02","slug":"where-are-all-the-women-in-wikipedia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/hsslibrary\/where-are-all-the-women-in-wikipedia\/","title":{"rendered":"Where are all the Women in Wikipedia?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/hsslibrary\/files\/2021\/03\/wikipedia.jpg\" alt=\"Wikipedia logo assembled piece by piece created by Giulia Forsythe.\" class=\"wp-image-1534\" width=\"192\" height=\"256\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/hsslibrary\/files\/2021\/03\/wikipedia.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/hsslibrary\/files\/2021\/03\/wikipedia-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 192px) 100vw, 192px\" \/><figcaption>Wikipedia. Created by <a href=\"https:\/\/search.creativecommons.org\/photos\/aa629787-5f7c-46e8-b157-beebd4517fe5\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/search.creativecommons.org\/photos\/aa629787-5f7c-46e8-b157-beebd4517fe5\">giulia.forsythe<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>How many times did you consult Wikipedia in the last month, week or even today?&nbsp;Once, twice maybe more?&nbsp;Perhaps&nbsp;you saw that Japanese tennis&nbsp;star&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Naomi_Osaka\" target=\"_blank\">Naomi Osaka<\/a>&nbsp;recently won the&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/2021_Australian_Open\" target=\"_blank\">2021 Australian Open<\/a>,&nbsp;googled her and stumbled across her Wikipedia page only to realize that hours later you were stuck in a&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wiki_rabbit_hole\" target=\"_blank\">Wiki rabbit hole<\/a>&nbsp;learning about the&nbsp;\u201cfirst widespread animation device that created a fluent illusion of motion\u201d, the&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Phenakistiscope\" target=\"_blank\">phenakistiscope<\/a>. For whatever the reason, the&nbsp;English Wikipedia, and its over 6 million articles, is a gold mine of information, but not for all&nbsp;topics.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Gender Gap<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>There&nbsp;is a&nbsp;severe&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gender_bias_on_Wikipedia\" target=\"_blank\">Gender Bias&nbsp;in Wikipedia<\/a>,&nbsp;which&nbsp;manifests itself in multiple forms: most contributors are men, most biographies are about men, concepts that are of interest to women&nbsp;have less coverage, and articles written by women or about women are&nbsp;consistently&nbsp;questioned&nbsp;over those&nbsp;articles written by men or&nbsp;about&nbsp;men. Wikipedia has a Gender Bias toward Women.&nbsp;Despite these gaps,&nbsp;however,&nbsp;there are numerous projects that are working to help address them and offer more diverse coverage of subjects on and about Women.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-medium is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/hsslibrary\/files\/2021\/03\/women_wiki-199x300.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1535\" width=\"198\" height=\"298\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/hsslibrary\/files\/2021\/03\/women_wiki-199x300.png 199w, https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/hsslibrary\/files\/2021\/03\/women_wiki-679x1024.png 679w, https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/hsslibrary\/files\/2021\/03\/women_wiki-768x1158.png 768w, https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/hsslibrary\/files\/2021\/03\/women_wiki.png 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 198px) 100vw, 198px\" \/><figcaption>Female symbol. Created by <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Women#\/media\/File:Female.svg\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Women#\/media\/File:Female.svg\">Gustavb<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Women in Red&nbsp;WikiProject&nbsp;<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;WikiProject,&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Women_in_Red\" target=\"_blank\">Women in Red<\/a>, seeks to increase the number of biographies on Women in Wikipedia by transforming&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Women_in_Red\/Redlist_index\" target=\"_blank\">red links<\/a>&nbsp;(links without a Wikipedia article) into blue links (links with a Wikipedia article.).&nbsp;Additionally, Women in Red seeks to increase the visibility of Women by adding Creative Commons licenses photographs to Wikimedia Commons that can then be used&nbsp;in Wikipedia articles or outside of the Wikimedia projects.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Women&nbsp;WikiProject&nbsp;<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Women\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Women\">Women&nbsp;WikiProject<\/a>&nbsp;group\u2019s&nbsp;goal is to improve Wikipedia\u2019s coverage of subjects pertaining to women&nbsp;and invites contributions from people of all gender identities, sexual orientations, geographic locations and backgrounds to participate.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Art+Feminism&nbsp;<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/artandfeminism.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Art+Feminism<\/a>&nbsp;is&nbsp;an international community that \u201cstrives to close the information gap about gender, feminism, and the arts on the&nbsp;internet.\u201d The community&nbsp;is responsible for many edit-a-thons focused on&nbsp;closing these gaps in Wikipedia.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Les Sans&nbsp;PagEs&nbsp;<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Et en&nbsp;fran\u00e7ais<\/em>&nbsp;there is the&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/fr.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Projet:Les_sans_pagEs\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Les sans PagEs<\/em><\/a><em>&nbsp;<\/em>group,&nbsp;that is dedicated to turning red&nbsp;(dead)&nbsp;links into blue&nbsp;(functional)&nbsp;links&nbsp;in pages about women, feminism, and other underrepresented&nbsp;subjects&nbsp;.&nbsp;The&nbsp;<em>Les sans&nbsp;PagEs&nbsp;<\/em>group intersects with the Women in&nbsp;Red&nbsp;WikiProject&nbsp;and the&nbsp;Art+Feminism&nbsp;group&nbsp;by expanding the&nbsp;work&nbsp;on the Francophone Wikipedia.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How you can contribute!&nbsp;<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Contributing to Wikipedia is open to all! You do not have to be anybody special to correct, change or create&nbsp;entries&nbsp;in Wikipedia.&nbsp;&nbsp;There are many ways to contribute:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Adding references (citations) to existing Wikipedia articles&nbsp;<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\" start=\"2\"><li>Correcting punctuation in existing Wikipedia articles&nbsp;<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\" start=\"3\"><li>Expanding and adding content (sections, paragraphs, etc.) to existing Wikipedia articles&nbsp;<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\" start=\"4\"><li>Translating existing Wikipedia articles into other languages&nbsp;<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\" start=\"5\"><li>Illustrating Wikipedia articles with Creative Commons licensed images&nbsp;<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\" start=\"6\"><li>Creating a new Wikipedia article from the scratch&nbsp;<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Interested in learning how to contribute?<\/strong>&nbsp;Join me for an introductory workshop on contributing to Wikipedia on&nbsp;<strong>Tuesday 9 March 2021 from 12:00 to 13:00<\/strong>.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/apps.library.mcgill.ca\/workshops-and-tours\/sessions\/introduction-editing-wikipedia-3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Registration required<\/a>. The workshop will be given via the Zoom platform&nbsp;and&nbsp;will focus on&nbsp;contributing to the English-language Wikipedia.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Can&#8217;t make it to the workshop<\/strong><strong>?<\/strong>&nbsp;Wikipedia has&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wikipedia:Contributing_to_Wikipedia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">numerous resources<\/a>&nbsp;that can help you&nbsp;self-teach&nbsp;on&nbsp;how to contribute.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For more information contact&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:hssl.library@mcgill.ca\" data-type=\"mailto\" data-id=\"mailto:hssl.library@mcgill.ca\">hssl.library@mcgill.ca<\/a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How many times did you consult Wikipedia in the last month, week or even today?&nbsp;Once, twice maybe more?&nbsp;Perhaps&nbsp;you saw that Japanese tennis&nbsp;star&nbsp;Naomi Osaka&nbsp;recently won the&nbsp;2021 Australian Open,&nbsp;googled her and stumbled across her Wikipedia page only to realize that hours later &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/hsslibrary\/where-are-all-the-women-in-wikipedia\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[120,36,37,123,122,124,81,35,121,9],"class_list":["post-1533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-resources","tag-female","tag-feminism","tag-gender","tag-gender-equality","tag-gender-equity","tag-wikimedia","tag-wikipedia","tag-women","tag-womyn","tag-workshops"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/hsslibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/hsslibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/hsslibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/hsslibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/hsslibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1533"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/hsslibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1545,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/hsslibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533\/revisions\/1545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/hsslibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/hsslibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.mcgill.ca\/hsslibrary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}