Wikipedia Needs More Women Campaign’ Unveiled To Close Knowledge Gaps on Wikipedia

The objective is to increase the engagement and representation of women and subjects on Wikipedia. The Foundation, a non-profit organization, believes although more work needs to be done, it is important to highlight that a growing number of people and initiatives have been working over the years to close knowledge gaps on Wikipedia.

Women make up half of the world’s population. However, only 19% of all content on Wikimedia projects – including biographies on Wikipedia – is about women, and only 13% of Wikipedia editors identify as women.

The gender gap, both in terms of women-related content and women contributors, is an all-pervasive issue across the internet, not just on Wikipedia. Wikipedia depends on the availability of existing published sources to verify the facts in its articles. But in many places globally, women have been left out of historical narratives and traditional sources of knowledge – an issue that many institutions and publications today are trying to address.

Introducing the campaign, Anusha Alikhan, the Wikimedia Foundation’s Chief Communications Officer said, “On International Women’s Day, this campaign is a call to action for everyone to help close these knowledge gaps on Wikipedia.

There are a number of ways that people can get involved to change the stats and make a difference, from editing a Wikipedia page to attending an online event”, adding, “We’re also calling on everyone – journalists, academics, thought leaders, and individuals and organizations across the information landscape – to increase their coverage of women. This will help build out the ecosystem of secondary literature that Wikipedia volunteers rely on to create and improve content about women.”