By Josephine Agbonkhese

The Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit behind Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, has announced the launch of its “Wikipedia Needs More Women” campaign.

The campaign commemorating this year’s International Women’s Day, IWD, celebrates efforts around the world, including Africa, to improve gender equity on Wikimedia projects and invites others to get involved.

Speaking on the rationale behind the campaign, Anusha Alikhan, Chief Communications Officer, Wikimedia Foundation, said that as one of the world’s largest knowledge resources, with 62 million articles in over 300 languages and 15 billion views per month, Wikipedia plays a crucial role in shaping everyone’s understanding of the world.

According to her, content on Wikipedia is written on notable subjects by over 265,000 volunteer contributors from around the world, with volunteers adhering to Wikipedia’s editorial standards, ensuring all information is backed by reliable sources and presented from a neutral point of view.

She, however, lamented that while Wikipedia depends on the availability of existing published sources to verify the facts in its articles, in many places around the world, women have been left out of historical narratives and traditional sources of knowledge.

She elaborated: “This gender gap is an all-pervasive issue across the internet. This means that many of these knowledge gaps are present on Wikipedia, and women remain significantly underrepresented.

“The ‘Wikipedia Needs More Women’ 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.

“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,” Alikhan added.

In a related development, Wikimedia Nigeria (Wikimedia Nigeria User Group), in partnership with the Embassy of Sweden in Nigeria and the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists, NAWOJ, will, as part of activities commemorating this year’s International Women’s Day, host a month-long series of events to improve gender equity, among other activities happening across Africa.

This, according to the group, will include the WikiGap Nigeria Online Challenge which is open to the public to create new articles for notable women and improve existing articles about women on Wikipedia, with a focus on English, Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, and Tyap Wikipedias.

“NAWOJ is proud to join forces with Wikimedia Nigeria in their dedicated pursuit of gender equity. By empowering women to contribute to and shape the content on Wikipedia, we are paving the way for a more inclusive and diverse platform for knowledge sharing,” said Dr Adeola Ekine, Chairperson, NAWOJ, Lagos State Chapter.

Ekine disclosed that the initiative will kick off on International Women’s Day, 8 March, with an in-person symposium featuring engaging panel discussions.

Following this, on 12 and 13 March, she said, a capacity-building workshop will take place, where the Wikimedia Nigeria team will guide NAWOJ members in utilising and enhancing their understanding of Wikipedia. The campaign will conclude with the Online Challenge, running from 14 to 31 March.

“We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to contribute to the sum of all human knowledge. The WikiGap Nigeria Online Challenge seeks to foster inclusivity, diversity, and gender representation on Wikipedia and the internet at large.

“We, therefore, urge everyone to join us and play their parts in ensuring that we begin to see more women in the world’s largest encyclopedia,” added Olushola Olaniyan, President, Wikimedia Nigeria User Group.