Submissions:2024/Representation of Mexican Women in Science in Wikipedia

This submission has been accepted for WikiConference North America 2024.

Etherpad

Title:

Representation of Mexican Women in Science in Wikipedia

Type of session:

Lecture (15-30 min)

Session theme(s):

Diversity & Inclusion

Abstract:

Gender inequality in Wikipedia, although well documented by multiple researchers and wikimedians (Tripodi, 2021 and Wagner et al., 2016), it is still present not only in the English Wikipedia but also in other languages. This gap impedes the ability of the encyclopedia to truly deliver “the sum of all human knowledge”. Projects like Women in Red, Art + Feminism, and Editatona have made extensive efforts to reduce the gender gap in the English and Spanish Wikipedias. Inspired by these projects and recognizing the little quantity and quality of articles related to female scientists, the project Wiki-Científicas Mexicanas (Wiki-Mexican Women in Science) was created at the end of 2020 with the support of Wikimedia Mexico. This project aims to create and edit biographies of women in science, particularly Mexican, as well as increase the number of wiki medians editing about female scientists. Since its foundation, we have created and edited more than 200 biographies of Mexican and Latin American scientists, with only a handful of them nominated for deletion. This has been done through multiple edit-a-tons and frequent follow-ups with the attendees. During this talk, I aim to present the different themes of our edit-a-thons, how we have increased the number of scientific personalities in the Spanish Wikipedia, and explain the challenges and successes of the project. By introducing this project to a broader and international audience, such as the one present during the Wiki-Conference North America, I intend to awaken the interest of fellow wikimedians in editing about women in science and create networks for future collaborations. I believe that working towards a more equitable Wikipedia goes beyond bettering the encyclopedia itself; it is about changing the perception of the public of who can be a scientist and inspiring the new generations to lose the fear of becoming one.

Author name(s):

Maria Fernanda Veloz Castillo

Wikimedia username(s):

Marifer Veloz

E-mail address:

hellomariferveloz.com

Affiliated organization(s):

Wikimedia Mexico

Estimated length of session

15 minutes + Q&A

Will you be presenting remotely?

Okay to livestream?

Livestreaming is okay

Previously presented?

No

Special requests:

REFERENCES:

Tripodi 2021: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14614448211023772

Wagner 2016: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1140/epjds/s13688-016-0066-4.pdf