Wikipedia:WikiProject Women in Red

	Women in Red: lifting up notable women from red-linked obscurity to an encyclopedic presence.
Find us ...
Here:	WP:WOMRED; WP:WPWIR; WP:WIRED;
or at	https://w.wiki/347

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About

Welcome to Women in Red (WiR)! We are a group of volunteer (unpaid) editors of all genders who live around the world and speak dozens of languages. Across different language Wikipedias, we focus on reducing systemic bias regarding gender representation (content gender gap) in the Wikipedia movement. Our goal is to "move the needle" in terms of statistical representation of women and other gender minorities on Wikipedia. We recognized a need for this work in 2014 when we learned that, as of October 2014, only 15.53% of English Wikipedia's biographies were about women.^[1] Without a particular percentage in mind, we recognized that with persistence, we could increase it, one article at a time. With only this in mind, Women in Red was established in July 2015, at Wikimania Mexico City, by Roger Bamkin and Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight.

According to Humaniki, the percentage of women's biographies on the English Wikipedia has reached 20.003% as of 16 December 2024. That means that of 2,040,570 biographies, only 408,183 are about women.^[2] Not impressed? "Content gender gap" is a form of systemic bias, and WiR addresses it in a positive way through shared values.

Can we increase the percentage still further? Yes! But we need you in order to do so. How? There are more than 34,000 general forum comments from over 1,200 different editors on our talkpage.^[3] Ask there. You don't have to be a member in order to participate in the conversations; just please be civil.

Do the articles have to be perfect when they are created? No. But establishing them according to Wikipedia's policies is the first step, and that's the focus of Women in Red: new article creation. Over time, other editors will improve these articles; maybe that's you.

Where the work is done

On Wikipedia

Our Wikipedia WikiProject focuses on creating content regarding women's biographies, women's works, and women's issues. Our editors create articles in many different language Wikipedias. The objective is to turn "redlinks" (like this one) into blue ones. That's why we are called "Women in Red".

We take an inclusive view towards subject matter, editors, and language communities:

Editors: We do not focus on the gender of the editor. Anyone/everyone is welcome to be a member, participant, enthusiast of Women in Red. If you participate in WiR, you can join up officially using the box in the top right-hand corner of this page. You are also welcome to add our userbox template {{User WikiProject Women in Red}} to your user page, to produce:

This user is a participant in WikiProject Women in Red (redlinks→blue)

Language communities: While Women in Red began on English Wikipedia, it is an international commitment with dozens of other language communities. Please add a link to your language's coordination page here.
Subject matter:

If the subject of the article self-identifies as a woman, a non-binary person, and/or any other gender minority, that person is included within the scope of Women in Red. Historic cases where it's unknown how they self-identified also count. The goal of the project is to increase inclusion, and we'd rather not block article subjects from being included in an article creation drive.
In addition to creating new articles, we create and maintain hundreds of lists of "missing" notable women. Some of these women have an article on some language Wikipedia, while others have no article in any Wikipedia. We call these lists, "redlists".
Click on our Redlinks index to see our lists of missing articles by focus area, occupation and nationality. Like everything else on Wikipedia, this is incomplete, so feel free to add pertinent items to our crowd-sourced lists.
While all redlists have redlinks, our redlists are generated in numerous ways:

crowd-sourced (example, Crafts)
Wikidata-generated (example, Herpetologists)
based on a dictionary or other reference book (example, Encyclopédie Larousse)
based on a website (example, BBC 100 Women)
based on an international Authority Control (example, VIAF)

Wikimedia Commons

Every year, our members upload thousands of images to Wikimedia Commons: photographs of women, their signatures, their works, etc. In turn, these images can be added to Wikipedia articles. This is another way people can be involved in improving women's representation on Wikipedia. Over 10,000 new images were added in 2022.

Wikidata

We create and improve Wikidata items related to women, women's works, and women's issues.

Announcements

Please post recent announcements directly on this page for improved page editing history, watcher alerts and greater visibility

Add new announcements to the top. Sign with ~~~~. Remove old ones after a couple of months.

New redlists: Internet Speculative Fiction Database, Universal Lithuanian Encyclopedia, A Historical Dictionary of British Women, American Women Artists, Past and Present, Dictionary of Wisconsin History, Italian Women Writers, Mujeres de Nuestra Tierra (Argentina), Representative Women of New England, Encyclopedia of China

Events

For a complete list of events, visit Wikipedia:WikiProject Women in Red/Events.

Ongoing initiatives

2024 year-long initiative: #1day1woman

2024 year-long initiative: Education

New for this month

December 2024 – January 2025: Women who died: 2024

December 2024: Religion

Recently completed

November 2024: Asian women

November 2024: Geofocus: Islands Q–Z

November 2024: Women in engineering

Upcoming events

2025 year-long editathon: Music

2025 year-long editathon: #1day1woman

January 2025: Alphabet run: A & B

Lists of red links

WiR works by filling in missing articles based on extensive lists of needed topics. The index to our wide range of topics and nationalities can be found at the Redlist index. Please make these red links blue. Notable women without a Wikipedia biography can be added to any crowd-sourced redlists they match; and added to wikidata such that they're included in wikidata-derived redlists. We also have a guide to adding names to redlists, and to creating new redlists.

Article alerts

See Wikipedia:WikiProject Deletion sorting/Women for articles about women that are nominated for deletion.

This section is a transcluded subpage, and may contain more information than is shown here. To view or edit, go to /Article alerts (watch this section).

Note: This report is based on the {{WIR}} banners of WikiProject Women in Red. If an article isn't listed here, first verify that it has one of those banners. If it has another women-related banner, like {{WikiProject Women}}, {{WikiProject Women's History}} or {{WikiProject Women scientists}}, look on those projects' article alert pages instead.

Did you know

20 Dec 2024 – Theresia Bauer (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by Moondragon21 (t · c); see discussion
15 Dec 2024 – Ethel Lote (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by Spiderpig662 (t · c); see discussion
14 Dec 2024 – Blossoms Under Somewhere (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by Prince of Erebor (t · c); see discussion
11 Dec 2024 – Sarah Pickstone (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by Jonathan Deamer (t · c); see discussion
11 Dec 2024 – Julia Hoggett (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by Lajmmoore (t · c); see discussion
09 Dec 2024 – Kathryn Maple (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by Jonathan Deamer (t · c); see discussion
08 Dec 2024 – Katerina Clark (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by Miraclepine (t · c); see discussion
01 Dec 2024 – Yvonne Francis-Gibson (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by Miraclepine (t · c); see discussion
30 Nov 2024 – Jane Stuart Smith (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by 4meter4 (t · c); see discussion
27 Nov 2024 – Mary Mellor (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by Lajmmoore (t · c); see discussion

(4 more...)

Articles for deletion

20 Dec 2024 – Viktorija Faith (talk · edit · hist) was AfDed by Balandėliai (t · c); see discussion (3 participants)
20 Dec 2024 – Emire Khidayer (talk · edit · hist) was AfDed by Uhooep (t · c); see discussion (3 participants)
20 Dec 2024 – Paige Kelton (talk · edit · hist) was AfDed by HopalongCasualty (t · c); see discussion (2 participants)
19 Dec 2024 – Cherilyn Elston (talk · edit · hist) was AfDed by Discospinster (t · c); see discussion (5 participants)
19 Dec 2024 – Aleksandra Fontaine (talk · edit · hist) was AfDed by Anuwrites (t · c); see discussion (5 participants)
18 Dec 2024 – Jaime Franklin (talk · edit · hist) was AfDed by GRuban (t · c); see discussion (2 participants)
18 Dec 2024 – Caleigh Peters (talk · edit · hist) was AfDed by Moondust534 (t · c); see discussion (4 participants)
18 Dec 2024 – Kamand Amirsoleimani (talk · edit · hist) was AfDed by NXcrypto (t · c); see discussion (3 participants)
18 Dec 2024 – Shajaan Muaz Shaheem (talk · edit · hist) was AfDed by MAL MALDIVE (t · c); see discussion (4 participants)
18 Dec 2024 – Keely Shaye Smith (talk · edit · hist) was AfDed by Lawrencekhoo (t · c); see discussion (2 participants)

(37 more...)

Proposed deletions

17 Dec 2024 – "Texas" Jean Valli (talk · edit · hist) was PRODed by Donaldd23 (t · c): Fails WP:GNG
17 Dec 2024 – Viktoriya Adiyeva (talk · edit · hist) PRODed by Shrug02 (t · c) was deproded by Flibirigit (t · c) on 17 Dec 2024

Declined drafts

Thanks firstly to Ronhjones, and now to Galobtter, we have a bot showing declined drafts submitted to AfC. Weekly updates highlight those most recently listed under New Additions. With a little bit of attention, some of them could well be moved to mainspace, encouraging the editors who created them to progress on Wikipedia.

Resources and research

WiR maintains resources to help you contribute, including lists of topical books and external links, information on editing in general, and contacts you can reach out to for specific needs. They can be found at Resources.

Academic research on Wikipedia's content gender gap is also documented at Research.

Metrics

This section is a transcluded subpage, containing more information than is shown here. To view detailed month-by-month results or to edit, go to Metrics.

About: additional details

The articles created for any month, including the current month, can be displayed by clicking on one of the months in the archive box.

We track the articles we create each month. Reports bot updates these lists automatically, but you can manually add and annotate entries. The bot will remove non-existent pages. More details about the bot. Our metrics talkpage is here: Metrics talkpage

The evolving list for this month (see Archives box) is created by the bot which lists new women's biographies on the basis of their female gender on Wikidata. At present, the bot does not list women's works, associations or related articles but you are encouraged to add these to the list manually. A WiR Wikidata page provides information on how you can help ensure WiR metrics are up-to-date.

The graph shows the number of articles created each month. The apparent decrease for the current month reflects the number of articles created up to today's date. Only data on completed months indicate overall progress.

For personal metrics on how many articles you've created about women, see this tool.

If you want to measure gender diversity in a given Wikipedia article, use this tool.

Totals at a glance

Year	Portion if applicable	Total	Daily average
2015	18 Jul – 31 Dec	11,711	70
2016		28,399	77
2017		28,271	77
2018		27,323	75
2019		27,207	75
2020		30,119	82
2021		26,780	73
2022		18,893	52
2023		17,925	49
2024
Grand total		216,628

Updated: Rosiestep (talk) 17:31, 2 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Summary of Women in Red statistics from main page

Date	Women	Bios	Percentage	Increase in % for year	Increase in Women for year	Increase in Bios for year	Percentage for year
30-Sep-2015	205,814	1,299,047	15.84%
1-Jan-2017	240,445	1,432,907	16.78%	0.94%	34,631	133,860	25.87%
1-Jan-2018	262,099	1,509,348	17.37%	0.58%	21,654	76,441	28.33%
31-Dec-2018	279,959	1,573,341	17.79%	0.43%	17,860	63,993	27.91%
30-Dec-2019	305,072	1,678,323	18.18%	0.38%	25,113	104,982	23.92%
11-Jan-2021	332,622	1,778,126	18.71%	0.53%	27,550	99,803	27.60%
3-Jan-2022	356,439	1,865,516	19.11%	0.40%	23,817	87,390	27.25%
2-Jan-2023	373,263	1,921,359	19.43%	0.32%	16,824	55,843	30.13%
1-Jan-2024	390,207	1,978,991	19.72%	0.29%	16,944	57,632	29.40%
16-Dec-24	408,183	2,040,570	20.00%	0.28%	17,976	61,579	29.19%
Total				4.15%	202,369	741,523	27.29%

Note: the September 2015 figure was reported here.

I have updated the figures two weeks early to show the figure is now 20%. TSventon (talk) 11:10, 20 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Further background on metrics

As a result of figures presented by Humaniki, we keep posting on the main Women in Red page the percentage of women's biographies on the English version of Wikipedia. Increases are steady but marginal: for example from July 2022 to July 2023, the percentage has risen from around 19.3% to around 19.6%.

Thanks to an analysis presented by Andrew Gray on the WIR talk page, it certainly looks as if the number of men and women involved in sports has a significant influence on the statistics for women. A detailed account of Gray's work is presented in "Gender and BLPs on Wikipedia, redux", which he published on 2 August 2023.

The two lists below show that biographies of living people (BLPs) born in recent years are approximately 50% female if data on all categories of athletes are excluded. By contrast, the equivalent overall figures (including athletes) are only around 25%. As a result, biographies of very large numbers of male sportspeople seem to be responsible for the huge difference. Andrew Gray's detailed lists below document how figures for BLPs by year of birth have evolved over the years:

Overall development of BLPs since the 1920s for all biographies

Missing birth year BLPs – 150,574, of which 53,355 female – 35.4%
1920s birth BLPs – 5,096, of which 1,325 female – 26.0%
1930s birth BLPs – 39,055, of which 7,086 female – 18.1%
1940s birth BLPs – 95,602, of which 18,495 female – 19.3%
1950s birth BLPs – 128,518, of which 27,172 female – 21.1%
1960s birth BLPs – 145,300, of which 33,390 female – 23.0%
1970s birth BLPs – 150,539, of which 37,893 female – 25.2%
1980s birth BLPs – 171,072, of which 42,880 female – 25.1%
1990s birth BLPs – 150,880, of which 36,944 female – 24.5%
2000s birth BLPs – 30,042, of which 7,542 female – 25.1%

Development of BLPs since the 1920s for biographies excluding athletes

If we discount all athletes using the infobox method, the results are:

Missing birth year BLPs – 140,177, of which 51,021 female – 36.4%
1920s birth BLPs – 4,321, of which 1,228 female – 28.4%
1930s birth BLPs – 28,978, of which 6,161 female – 21.2%
1940s birth BLPs – 73,095, of which 16,566 female – 22.7%
1950s birth BLPs – 95,893, of which 23,644 female – 24.7%
1960s birth BLPs – 96,175, of which 26,632 female – 27.8%
1970s birth BLPs – 81,682, of which 27,562 female – 33.7%
1980s birth BLPs – 58,078, of which 24,816 female – 42.7%
1990s birth BLPs – 23,281, of which 11,754 female – 50.5%
2000s birth BLPs – 2,850, of which 1,539 female – 54.0%

Showcase

WiR is amazing and has way too much to showcase here. Please see Showcase for our recent and past achievements.

Recent Did You Know? blurbs

These are the 20 most recent WP:DYK entries for WiR. Updated approximately weekly by User:JL-Bot.

... that Elin Falk caused a national controversy in 1913 with her proposals for reforming gymnastics in Swedish schools? (2024-12-14)
... that Rada Dyson-Hudson was denied academic tenure at Johns Hopkins University and Cornell University despite her academic record and capabilities? (2024-12-11)
... that Celeste Caeiro's actions led to the naming of the 1974 coup in Portugal as the Carnation Revolution? (2024-12-09)
... that Annie Huggett, aged 103, was the oldest living suffragette at the time of her death in 1996? (2024-12-07)
... that Marie Denizard (pictured) stood as a candidate in a French presidential election in 1913, thirty years before French women achieved suffrage? (2024-12-04)
... that television director Diana Edwards-Jones introduced earpieces to permit direct communication between a control room and newsreaders? (2024-11-30)
... that Shadia Abu Ghazaleh was one of the first women to join the Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank? (2024-11-29)
... that the hips of some 19th-century Fijian young women were tattooed with veiqia when they reached puberty? (2024-11-28)
... that Victoria Espinosa directed the first performance of The Public, almost 50 years after it was written? (2024-11-27)
... that Soviet academic Lily Golden researched "officially disapproved" genres of contemporary Black music? (2024-11-27)
... that heavy-metal guitarist Kiki Wong (pictured) played drums for Taylor Swift before joining the Smashing Pumpkins? (2024-11-26)
... that after fleeing to Argentina as a Spanish Civil War refugee, Maria Muntañola Cvetković became one of Yugoslavia's first experts on microfungi? (2024-11-19)
... that the politician Veylma Falaeo is the first woman to be President of the Congress of New Caledonia? (2024-11-18)
... that ballerina Marina Kondratyeva served the Bolshoi Ballet and its school for over 70 years? (2024-11-17)
... that psychologist Sonya Friedman recommends that women create a totem, a collection of objects that represent important turning points in their lives? (2024-11-14)
... that Jeya Wilson invited New Zealand prime minister David Lange to debate the moral indefensibility of nuclear weapons at the Oxford Union? (2024-11-14)
... that Northern Cypriot minister of health İzlem Gürçağ Altuğra warned that her country would be destroyed unless it started producing drugs? (2024-11-13)
... that Margaret Pargeter published 49 books in eleven years, with another book following eleven years later? (2024-11-09)
... that Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna's car was once fired on by Russian tanks? (2024-11-08)
... that Grizel Niven created "The Bessie", the Women's Prize for Fiction statuette, which a past winner called "ugly"? (2024-11-08)

Transcluding 20 of 2823 total

Press

There has been considerable press coverage of WiR, to the point where the project has its own Wikipedia article. Below are some recent articles. To add articles to the list, visit Press.

Wikipedia Donations Go Toward Embedding Feminism And Racial Justice In World’s Largest Encyclopedia, by Robert Schmad, Daily Caller (not considered reliable), 23 September 2024
Niagara resident named Wikimedian of the Year, by Richard Hutton, Thorold Today, 19 August 2024
"This Researcher Is on a Crusade to Correct Wikipedia’s Gender Imbalance", by Katie Hafner and Sophie McNulty, Scientific American, 30 July 2024
"Less than 20 per cent of Wikipedia bios are on women. These Wikipedians want to change that.", by Olivia Cleal, Women's Agenda, 30 July 2024
"‘Women in Red’: PennWest prof helps close gender gap in Wikipedia entries", by Paul Paterra, Observer-Reporter, 8 July 2024
"This Canadian Non-Profit Is Helping To Fix Wikipedia’s Diversity Gap", by Maureen Halushak, Chatelaine, 17 June 2024
"Wikipedia is also affected by the gender gap", Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, 3 May 2024
" Georgetown hosts Wikipedia edit-a-thon, harnessing anger into action", by Julia Vasilj, The Georgetown Voice, 14 April 2024
"Wikipedia Needs More Women: Bridging The Gender Gap In Knowledge Representation", Africa.com, 5 April 2024
"Wikimedia Foundation launches ‘Wikipedia Needs More Women’ campaign" by Josephine Agbonkhese, Vanguard, 8 March 2024
"On International Women’s Day, Wikimedia Foundation celebrates efforts in Africa to improve gender equity on Wikipedia", The Sun, 8 March 2024
"Int'l Women's Day: Wikimedia launches 'Wikipedia needs more women' campaign", Business Standard, 8 March 2024
"Wikipedia needs more women. And India can help bridge this gender gap" by Anusha Alikhan, The Print, 8 March 2024
"The Guardian view on Wikipedia’s female volunteers: a hive heroism that changes history", editorial, The Guardian, 8 March 2024, also in connection with Lucy Moore
"UK academic’s Wikipedia project raises profile of women around the world", by Robyn Vinter on Wikipedian Lucy Moore, The Guardian, 5 March 2024
"Review highlights gender gap on Wikipedia", by University of Barcelone, Phys.org, 5 March 2024
"What a Wikipedia page can do for women in STEM", by Olivia Clear, womensagenda.com.au, 11 October 2023
"‘Why are they not on Wikipedia?’: Dr Jess Wade’s mission for recognition for unsung scientists", by Donna Ferguson, The Observer, 1 October 2023
"Some Things I Like About the Expanding Wikipedia Universe", by Hilda Bastian, Absolutely Maybe (PLOS) blog, 2 August 2023
"Bestselling author Kate Mosse urges budding historians and writers to add more biographies of women to Wikipedia", by Fiona Parker, Daily Mail, 3 July 2023
"The British physicist making women scientists visible online", article about Jess Wade by Anna Cuenca, Phys Org, 20 April 2023
"Social Scientists Can’t Ignore the Power of Wikipedia—or Its Systemic Biases", by Mariah John-Leighton and Hannah Jane Pearson, London School of Economics and Political Science, 6 April 2023
"Wheres Russo?" Sky Sports profile Lewes FC including Women in Red Barnstar winner James Boyes 31 March 2023
"Closing Wikipedia’s Gender Gap, One Edit at a Time", by Sara Norberg, Tufts Now, 27 March 2023
Nature asks 6 to comment on their plans for International Women's Day including Jess Wade.
"Majority of Wikipedia editors are still men - so how is the online encyclopaedia addressing the issue?", Evening Standard, 8 March 2023.
"Lewes FC is delighted that our own volunteer club photographer James Boyes has received a ‘Barnstar’ award from Women in Red, and is indeed the only person to receive one in 2022."

Academia

In addition to listings under Research, academic papers on gender bias in Wikipedia (as recorded in Wikidata) are listed in Scholia.

To include a paper, create an item about it on Wikidata (check first to avoid duplicates) and give it main subject (P921) = gender bias on Wikipedia (Q17002416).

References

^ Graells-Garrido, Eduardo; Lalmas, Mounia; Menczer, Filippo (2015). "First Women, Second Sex: Gender Bias in Wikipedia". Proceedings of the 26th ACM Conference on Hypertext & Social Media - HT '15: 165–174. arXiv:1502.02341. doi:10.1145/2700171.2791036. S2CID 1082360.
^ "Humaniki".
^ "Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Women in Red • wiki.riteme.site". XTools.