Wikipedia Editing
to increase the online visibility of women in STEMM
“Marie Curie is one of the most famous women in science. But her first page on Wikipedia was shared with her husband — until someone pointed out that, perhaps, her scientific contributions were notable enough to warrant her own biography.”
– Jess Wade and Maryam Zaringhalam
Did you know that there is a serious gender bias on Wikipedia, one of the world’s most-visited websites? Only 19% of the people profiled on Wikipedia are women, and gender diverse people are similarly under-represented. This means that many talented individuals (and their work) are not getting the recognition they deserve, as well as critically skewing perceptions about the contributions that women make to society.
But learning how to edit Wikipedia is a wonderful (and fun!) way to combat this gender bias and help make the internet a little bit better. Click on the buttons below to learn about ways you can get involved.
Wikipedia Edit-a-thons
We are proud to have held two Wikipedia Edit-a-thons to increase the online representation of women working in health and medical research.
Together, our Wikipedia Edit-a-thons have made a huge impact:
… and counting!
The impact of Edit-a-thons goes well beyond the day as participants put their new skills to use and are empowered to continue contributing to Wikipedia well into the future.
*Metrics collected end of April 2022
Writing pages for Women In STEMM
Check out some of the amazing women working in STEMM fields who didn’t have Wikipedia pages until they were written during our Edit-a-thons. This list collectively includes recipients of the Eureka Prizes, Officers of the Order of Australia, TEDx speakers, Institute Directors – and even one subject of an Archibald Prize painting!!
If you’d like join one of our Edit-a-thons, please subscribe to our newsletter to stay up-to-date with all our activities. And if you would like our support to help you run your own Edit-a-thon, please get in touch.
As partners of Franklin Women, AbbVie is proud to have sponsored these Edit-a-thons
Thank you to Wikimedia Australia for their ongoing support of our Edit-a-thons
Editing Tutorials
As impactful as Wikipedia Edit-a-thons have been, improving the visibility of women on Wikipedia is an ongoing effort and we want to make it easy for anyone, anywhere to be able to contribute. So, in partnership with Wikimedia Australia and The Leadership Film, we’ve created ‘More Than A Day’, a series of step-by-step tutorials to empower you to edit Wikipedia yourself.
There are 10 easy-to-follow chapters, where Wikimedian Caddie Brain will talk you through the basics: everything from creating your account, to making edits on an existing page, or creating a new one and looking after it. You can pause the tutorials and follow along as you make your first edits, then refer back whenever you need a refresher.
We promise it’s fun and easy once you get going – so we hope you’ll join us in making the internet a more equitable place!
We have also pulled together a number of practical resources to help you get started:
- Our ‘How to Edit Wikipedia’ Cheat Sheet
- Annotated Wiki page to use as an example (Prof Anne Kelso’s no less)
- Our 2022 Edit-a-thon Project Page on Wikipedia, which provides a list of women from our sector who you can add or improve pages for, plus many other useful links and support groups
Join the Global Movement
Franklin Women are part of a global movement working to improve the visibility of women and other under-represented groups on Wikipedia. There are many different ways that you can contribute – from spreading the word about the content bias online and being aware of this when sourcing information, to adding a brand new page or improving the quality of existing articles, to nominating a woman for a prize so that there are more reliable sources available to cite on her page – it all makes a difference!
