Closing the Gender Gap on Wikipedia: Empowering Women's Voices and Representation

Core Concepts

Wikipedia needs to actively engage and include more content about and contributions from women, cis, transgender, and non-binary individuals from around the world to truly reflect the complexity and richness of the human experience.

Abstract

The content discusses the gender gap on Wikipedia and the efforts to address it. Key highlights: Women's accomplishments and discoveries have often been forgotten, appropriated, or excluded from historical narratives and traditional sources of knowledge, leading to their underrepresentation on Wikipedia. Currently, only 19% of the biographies on Wikipedia are about women, and only 13% of active editors on Wikimedia projects identify as women, despite women making up nearly half of Wikipedia's readership. The Wikimedia Foundation and a global community of volunteers have been working to enhance women-related content and increase the participation of women on Wikipedia and beyond, through initiatives like the "Celebrate Women" campaign and training programs for librarians. Readers are encouraged to participate in the "Wikipedia Needs More Women" campaign by joining editing events, improving articles about notable women, and engaging with the local Wikipedia volunteer community. Closing the gender gap on Wikipedia is crucial, as it is a primary source for training large language models like ChatGPT, and it must represent the world's people and knowledge.

Stats

Only 19% of the biographies on Wikipedia are about women, out of almost 2 million biographies. 49% of Wikipedia's readers are women, but only 13% of active editors on Wikimedia projects identify as women. Since 2010, the percentage of Wikipedia editors who identify as women has grown from 10 to 20 percent, and the percentage of women's biographies on Wikipedia grew from about 10 to 19 percent.

Quotes

"Ball is one of countless women written out of history — whose accomplishments and discoveries were either forgotten, appropriated, or excluded." "To truly reflect the complexity and richness of the human experience, it is essential that Wikipedia actively engages and includes more content about and contributions from women — cis, transgender, and non-binary — from around the world."

Key Insights Distilled From

Wikipedia needs more women

by Anusha Alikh... at medium.com 03-08-2024

https://medium.com/freely-sharing-the-sum-of-all-knowledge/wikipedia-needs-more-women-c6e32f06e0b1

Deeper Inquiries

How can the Wikimedia Foundation and the global Wikipedia community further incentivize and support women's participation as editors and content contributors?

To further incentivize and support women's participation on Wikipedia, the Wikimedia Foundation and the global Wikipedia community can implement several strategies. Firstly, they can organize more targeted outreach programs and edit-a-thons specifically aimed at women to create a welcoming environment for them to contribute. Providing training sessions, mentorship programs, and resources tailored to women editors can also help build their confidence and skills. Additionally, highlighting the importance of diverse perspectives and the impact of women's contributions on the platform can serve as motivation. Recognizing and celebrating the work of women editors through awards or acknowledgment can further incentivize their participation.

What are the potential biases and blind spots in the existing sources of knowledge that lead to the underrepresentation of women on Wikipedia, and how can these be addressed?

The underrepresentation of women on Wikipedia is influenced by biases and blind spots in existing sources of knowledge. Historically, women's achievements have been marginalized or omitted from traditional narratives, leading to a lack of reliable sources to cite in Wikipedia articles. This results in a perpetuation of gender gaps in content. To address this, efforts should be made to diversify the pool of sources used on Wikipedia by including more publications and materials that highlight women's contributions. Encouraging the documentation of women's achievements in various fields and promoting the inclusion of diverse voices can help mitigate these biases and blind spots.

How might the increased representation of women on Wikipedia impact the development and application of large language models like ChatGPT, and what are the broader societal implications of this?

The increased representation of women on Wikipedia can have significant implications for the development and application of large language models like ChatGPT. By having more diverse and inclusive content on Wikipedia, these language models can be trained on a wider range of perspectives and information, leading to more accurate and unbiased outputs. This can help reduce gender biases in AI technologies and improve the quality of responses generated by these models. From a societal perspective, increased representation of women on Wikipedia can contribute to a more balanced and equitable portrayal of history and knowledge. It can empower women by showcasing their achievements and contributions, ultimately fostering a more inclusive and diverse online environment.