This September, our Projects manager, Sophie, was delighted to be present at the Women’s History Network’s Annual Conference. She presented a paper on Alternative Routes for Digital Activism with a case study on Art+Feminism and WikiWomen Erasmus+. The audience was also invited to get involved in an editathon as part of the workshop.
About the Conference
The Women’s History Network is a national association and charity for the promotion of women’s history and the encouragement of everyone interested in women’s history.
The aim of the WHN’s 33rd annual conference is to explore and celebrate the challenges of uncovering the presence of women within archives, libraries, museums and personal collections. It is also an opportunity for keepers and cataloguers to discuss issues related to the accessibility/inaccessibility of collections.
You can find out more here.
Who was the pioneer of abstract art in Europe?
About the presentation
Movements such as ‘The Guerrilla Girls’ have highlighted that, unfortunately, in the art world, it is very common that women artists are not as celebrated as their male counterparts. For as long as written history, women — especially Black, Indigenous, and women of color — have been left out of the record. This is also true for gender minorities.
Wikipedia offers an alternative route to access knowledge and history that has traditionally been tied up in institutions or behind paywalls. It has become the first port of call for finding information and is currently the 7th most-visited website globally. It offers a place for us to write and right the stories of those who have been marginalised. It offers an empowering opportunity for change. However, it is not without its problems.
As of January 2025, only 18.9% of the content in all Wikimedia projects, including biographies on Wikipedia, is about women (Humaniki). Furthermore, only 15% of Wikimedia contributors are women. Strikingly, editors who are women are also more likely to get their edits reverted.
Taking a feminist approach to making the internet a more equal, collaborative and safe place to be also means amplifying the voices of anyone who has been marginalised from the canon of knowledge. This is where Art+Feminism comes in. Today, the vision of Art+Feminism extends to amplifying the work and stories of artists from gender minorities and indeed all underrepresented groups.
Along the same vein, Wikimedia Community Ireland along with our European partners created the WikiWomen Erasmus+ Toolkits. These open-access multilingual multilingual educational toolkits address gaps in participation and content bringing minority languages and women’s representation together in the classroom. A key outcome of the Project is that these toolkits will be made available in many languages and open to be used by schools, libraries, galleries and museums in their own educational work.
This paper will explore the challenges and opportunities that lie in using Wikipedia as an alternative route for digital activism.
Editathon
Participants also joined a hand on editathon as part of the presentation. There was a great outcome with historians and researchers present, embarking on the first steps towards becoming Wikimedians. Thank you to everyone who signed up to the dashboard and participated in the editing event. Even small edits make a difference and will help to make Wikipedia a more inclusive and diverse place that more accurately captures the breadth of knowledge and a wide range of voices.
