Gender bias on Wikipedia has been well documented and frequently discussed recently, so we were very glad to hear about this cooperative effort to see more representation of women on Arabic Wikipedia.
The overwhelming majority of articles in Arabic are about men—as are the vast majority of editors. To see more women’s stories, more women need to edit, which is one of the goals of the campaign. Click through to read more about the #HerStory effort—because marginalization, oppression and inequality can only be fought effectively when we fully appreciate women, their lives and their stories.
egyptianstreets.com – Wikipedia, the sixth-most-visited website in the world, is a hub for many hoping to find information about their favourite movie stars, historical locations, sports and more. With more than 40 million articles in 293 languages, it is therefore not surprising that a new campaign was launched to promote greater representation of women on Wikipedia.
#HerStory hopes to tackle the issue of gender equality in all areas of Wikipedia’s operations. Launched by UN Women in Egypt, Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Empower Women, the HeForShe campaign, and UNIT, #HerStory aims to double the number of female editors on Arabic Wikipedia while increasing awareness of women’s contributions online and increasing knowledge about gender concepts.
According to the campaign, there are at least 76,380 articles about men on Arabic Wikipedia and just 13,617 about women. Meanwhile, 85 percent of Wikipedia’s editors are men despite the fact that the website is used by both men and women equally.
It is these statistics and more that have pushed #HerStory to campaign to close the gender knowledge in the online sphere.
