Just under a fifth of Wikipedia's content, including biographies, is focused on women, while women account for just about 15% of the site's volunteer editors. "The numbers are pretty terrifying," said Patricia Horrillo, who for much of the past decade has spent her spare time working to tackle this gap, cultivating a community of Wikipedia editors dedicated to publishing content focused on women.
The result is Spain's Wikiesfera, one of a handful of groups - from Whose Knowledge? in the US to Italy's WikiDonne and Switzerland's Les Sans Pages - that have sprung up to address Wikipedia's gender balance.
It is something that has long been recognised by the Wikimedia Foundation, the organisation that hosts Wikipedia. "Wikipedia is powered by humans, so it is vulnerable to human biases," the foundation said. "It is also a reflection of the structural and historical inequalities women experience around the world."
Wikipedia has historically been edited by more men than women, all of whom rely on existing published sources to verify the facts in its articles, the foundation notes. "But in many places around the world, women have been left out of historical narratives and traditional sources of knowledge."
Denne historien er fra June 21, 2024-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.
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Denne historien er fra June 21, 2024-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.
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Friendship interrupted
They were best mates. Then one had a baby, while the other struggled to conceive. They share their brutally honest takes on what happens when motherhood affects friendship
KERNELS OF HOPE
During the siege of Leningrad, botanists in charge of an irreplaceable seed collection, the first of its kind, had to protect it from fire, rodents-and hunger
A new horizon' The inverse link between cancer and dementia
Scientists have long been aware of a curious connection between these common and feared diseases. At last, a clearer picture is emerging
Across the universe
Samantha Harvey won the Booker prize with a novel set in space. Yet, she says, Orbital is actually 'a celebration of Earth's beauty with a pang of loss'
Frank Auerbach 1931 -2024
Saved from the Holocaust, this artist captured the devastation of postwar Britain as ifits wounds were his own but he ultimately found salvation in painting
Seven lessons I've learned after 28 years as economics editor
Margaret Thatcher was Britain's prime minister and Neil Kinnock was leader of the Labour party.
Droughtstricken dam leaves economies powerless
A ll is not well with the waters of Lake Kariba, the world's human-made lake largest A punishing drought has drained the huge reservoir close to record lows, raising the prospect that the Kariba Dam, which powers the economies of Zambia and Zimbabwe, may have to shut down for the first time in its 65-year history.
Let this be the end of these excruciating celebrity endorsements
I wish celebrities would learn the art of the French exit. But they can't, which is why Eva Longoria has announced she no longer lives in America. \"I get to escape and go somewhere,\" she explained.
Alive, but unable to thrive under absolute patriarchy
Since the Taliban returned to power, women and girls have tried defiance, but despair at their harshly restricted lives
‘It's tragic’ Reflection in the wake of Amsterdam violence
Carrying signs scrawled with messages urging unity, they laid white roses at the statue of Anne Frank, steps away from the home where her family had hidden from Nazi persecution.
