Wiki Loves Women/en

Ongoing project/Projet en cours. Read in English - Lire en Français

Project external links

Website: www.wikiloveswomen.org
WLW's Inspiring Open podcast: Listen from here
Youtube: Wiki Loves Women Playlist
Twitter: @Wikiloveswomen
Instagram: @WikiLovesWomen
Facebook page : @WikiLovesWomen
Facebook group : Mind The Gender Gap group
Wiki in Africa project page: WLW on Wiki In Africa
Project internal links
HOME (On Meta): Wiki Loves Women
On English WP: WikiProject Wiki Loves Women
On French WP: Projet:Wiki Loves Women
On Commons: c:Category:Wiki Loves Women
The Advisory Committee (created in 2020)
The Focus Group (created in 2021)
Global drives organized:
#SheSaid annual campaign (2023) 2023 ISA Tell Us About Her campaign #SheSaid annual campaign (2022) 2022 ISA Tell Us About Her campaign #SheSaid annual campaign (2020, 2021) 2021 ISA Tell Us About Her campaign 2020 ISA Tell Us About Her campaign #19Women in Sport (2019) #18Women Occupation Drive (2018) #17African feminists (2017) #16WikiWomen Translation Drive (2016) #15Challenge Concours d’écriture (2015)
Participation in:
The Africa Destubathon (2016)
Friend and allies in Asia
Wiki Loves Women India 2019 Wiki Loves Women South Asia 2020 Wiki Loves Women South Asia 2021
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Wiki Loves Women in briefEdit

The projectEdit

Wiki Loves Women focuses on bridging two significant gaps on Wikimedia projects – women and Africa – both in terms of content about these subjects and in terms of participation by people from these groups. Wiki Loves Women is a Wiki in Africa project.

The project is designed to leverage Wikipedia’s role as a global repository for the dissemination of information to achieve accessible and fair online representation of notable women in countries in Africa. It encourages the contribution of existing researched and verified information by civil society organisations to Wikipedia with the intent of redressing the systemic bias online about women. The donated data and content specifically focuses on women’s contribution to the political, economic, scientific, cultural and heritage landscape, as well as the current socio-political status of women in each country that it is instigated.

In 2020, Wiki Loves Women announced its Advisory Committee that is made up of amazing women and men within the Wikimedia movement who have experience with pushing for gender equity. Many of the members were involved as their community's leads when doing Wiki Loves Women's activities in their countries. We are fortunate and honoured to have them involved.

The project achieves its aims by working with existing gender equality-focused civil society organisations to release their intelligence onto Wikipedia, and by training established Women’s groups and working with existing Wikipedia Volunteer groups to disseminate this information among the Wikimedia projects. In addition, the project encourages the activation and support of new and existing editors (both female and gender-sensitised male Wikipedians) in the focus countries.

ContextEdit

Gender inequality is rife across Africa. Although much progress has been made to address these inequalities in the workplace and within society, there remains a systemic bias towards profiling women, especially with regards to information, news and knowledge sources, both online and offline.
There are significant numbers of notable women who have shaped the past of African societies, there are innovative African female businesswomen who help to drive Africa’s many economies (formal and informal) and there are everyday realities that women and female children must face due to their gender. These stories need to sit alongside the ones of their male counterparts. Very few of these subjects can be found online, far fewer on the world’s largest knowledge repositories, such as Wikipedia.

Why Wiki Loves WomenEdit

In ITU’s 2019 report 4.1 billion people (53% of the global population) are online. This means that 3.6 billion people are not connected to the Internet, despite 96% of the global population living within reach of a mobile signal. The majority of these unconnected people live in the least Developed Countries, where 80% of the population is offline. In 2019 Africa’s internet penetration was at 39.3 % (the world’s lowest). In 2020, Internet penetration across southern Africa is at 26.4%.

Internet access for women lags behind men. Overall, 48% of all women use the Internet, compared with 58% of all men. In Africa, the internet penetration rate drops to 33.8% for men and 22.6% for women. The digital gender gap has been widening over recent years. Other research finds that urban poor women are 50% less likely to use the internet than men.

Analysis of these statistics mentioned above indicate the following barriers to Internet use:

Affordability
A lack of digital skills
A lack of meaningful and interesting content (subjects that women are interested in or relate to, e.g. local issues, health,)
A lack of content that represents their experience (e.g. expert women as thought leaders, stereotypical portrayal, etc.)
A lack of cultural considerations (local context, stories and languages).

Lack of access to information by women becomes a self-perpetuating cycle. If women do not see themselves represented online with stories that are in their language and relevant to their culture, they are less likely to see themselves as capable of contributing. Further, without inspiring women being showcased on local media, many women will not be inspired to follow similar pathways. Leaving nobody behind is a central precept of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The TeamEdit

User:Anthere and User:Islahaddow conceptualised Wiki Loves Women in 2015 and developed it in discussion with Brigitte Doellgast at the Goethe-Institut. It was launched in 2016 with community building activities in 4 African countries and 2 online drives. Since then the community is growing in 12 countries, led by Wikimedia individuals and usergroups who conduct local community activities in partnership with over 78 organisation. The project provides further visibility and content through at least two online drives a year. In 2021, Wiki Loves Women was excited to add User:Shoodho to the team as an administrative assistant.

Florence Devouard, co-creator and co-lead
I was born in Versailles (France). I grew up in Grenoble, and have been living since then in several French cities, as well as Antwerpen in Belgium and Tempe in Arizona. I am an engineer in Agronomy (ENSAIA and also hold a DEA in Genetics and biotechnologies (INPL). I have spent a while in public research (INRA), working in flower plant genetic improvement, later in applied research, in microbiology, to study the feasibility of heavily polluted soil bioremediation. I spent some time in Tempe University (Arizona), following courses in computer science and civil engineering. After a break to take care of my first two kids, I joined a small french firm, Quantix Agro, whose activity was related with decision tools, in finances, insurance, agriculture and agri-business. My part was in the agri-business, and I mostly worked to conceive decision-making tools in w:en:sustainable agriculture. Unfortunately, my firm had to stop activity at the end of 2005. As of late 2021, I am 53, and live in Marseille. A few (rather old) pics. My kids are sometimes featured in some wikimedia projects. The last one is hidden somewhere in the Wikibooks on photography.

Isla Haddow-Flood, co-creator and co-lead
A Zimbabwean by birth, and a Capetonian by adoption, Oxford-educated Isla Haddow-Flood is a writer, editor and project and communications strategist who is passionate about harnessing communication technology and media platforms for the advancement of open access to knowledge; specifically, the knowledge that relates to and enhances the understanding of Africa via the Open Movement (and especially Wikipedia). Since 2011, Isla has been working to Activate Africa. Working as a member of the WikiAfrica movement, she has conceptualised, instigated and been the co-lead on a number of projects related to Wikipedia and Africa, including as Wiki Loves Africa (the annual photographic contest), Kumusha Takes Wiki (citizen journalists in Africa collecting freely-licensed content), Wiki Loves Women (content liberation project related to African Women), WikiFundi(an offline editing environment that mimics Wikipedia), and WikiChallenge African Schools (that introduces the next generation of editors to Wikipedia). In 2021 she co-created and launched the WikiAfrica Hour and the WikiAfrica Heritage training program for GLAMs. She lives in Simon's Town, South Africa, is the Director of Communication for Open Education Global and co-leads Wiki In Africa.

Afek Ben Chahed, Community Facilitator at Wiki in Africa
Afek Ben Chahed, Tunisian, Librarian and an active member of Wikimedia Tunisia User Group since 2016 after winning the first prize of Wiki Women Tunisia. She co-organised several projects and contests as Wiki Loves Africa in Tunisia, WikiChallenge Ecoles d'Afrique, WikiGap, Art and Feminism, and leaded the expansion project of the ArabCom by creating a new community in Mauritania. She was involved in organising many events as WikiIndaba 2018, Wiki Summit 2019(The visiting Wikimedian), WikiConvention Francophone 2019 and WikiArabia 2019. On 2020, she integrated the board of Wikimedia Tunisia as a vice president. Passionate about heritage, she co-founded Africvs, a youth collective which works on promoting and documenting the Tunisian heritage.

Former team membersEdit

Candy Tricia Khohliwe, Wiki Loves Women Administrative Assistant
Candy Tricia Khohliwe is a long-term editor and member of the Wikimedia Botswana Usergroup. She has led two successful Wiki Loves Africa photo contest and a successful Art and Feminism Editathon and panel discussion. She is the coordinator with Wiki Loves Women Focus Group Members initiative.

Project linksEdit

Website : http://www.wikiloveswomen.org
Inspiring Open Podcast : https://podcast.wikiloveswomen.org
Facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/WikiLovesWomen
Facebook group : [1]
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WikiLovesWomen
on Wiki in Africa website: http://www.wikiafrica.net/projects/wiki-loves-women/

The spin-off Wiki Loves Women AsiaEdit

Our work in Africa inspired our friends and allies in Asia, and they start Wiki Loves Women Asia, a project that focuses on bridging the gender gap in Wikipedia and creating content on women keeping the context of feminism and women in Asia and release and make widely available cultural and educational content on, or related to women, to the general public. Keep in touch with them at Wiki Loves Women Asia.

WLW Activities in 2022Edit

Planned

Ongoing: WLW Focus Group: 18 women from 12 African countries activate their communities
Done March: Global launch of Inspiring Open, Wiki Loves Women's podcast series.
Done March: ISA global campaign – Tell Us About Her : Women in Architecture. Ends: March 31
Done March: Support for and involvement in the Celebrate Women global Celebrate Women focus
2nd half of 2022: WLW Equity Course: full immersion into the gender gap (funding dependent)
Nov-Dec: 2022 SheSaid global campaign: the annual campaign on Wikiquote