500 Women Scientists has partnered with Wiki Education to provide our network with the opportunity to take a deeper dive into editing Wikipedia. Over the course of six weeks, learn how to edit and create biographies for women and gender minorities leading in science, technology, engineering, math, and medicine (STEMM). Participants in these courses are then expected to share their expertise as regular Wikipedia editors and Wiki-thon volunteers, helping us increase our impact and inspire the next generation of scientists in the process.
Want to join a future 500 Wiki Women Scientists Cohort? Check back on this page for updates!
Testimonials from past participants
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“I enjoyed the comradeship,” she says. “Once a week, I get to spend my lunch hour with other women scientists from different parts of the world, all working towards creating biographies to improve representation on Wikipedia.” — Maggie Tam, Communications Committee Co-Chair for Females in Mass Spectrometry. Read more… |
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“I was amazed at the number of page views our articles had just in the small time we worked in the cohort so I think it’s clear that Wikipedia is a major player and that people pay attention to what is posted there. It’s very important that Wikipedia users can see themselves somewhere in Wikipedia.” — Britt Forsberg, program coordinator for the Minnesota Master Naturalist program. Read more… |
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“I was excited to try my hand at editing articles that I felt could have an impact in the community by elevating voices of People of Color in science. I chose to edit articles on Shirley Malcom, Melina Abdullah and Lori White, which taught me a lot.” — Adriana Bankston, Principal Legislative Analyst at University of California. Read more… |
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“During my first week of Wiki Education’s course, I learned two astonishing facts that I would repeat nearly every time I told someone about my participation in this program: roughly 80-85% of Wikipedia editors are white males and only about 17% of Wikipedia biographies feature women. I immediately knew I would focus on biographies of female mathematicians.” – Samantha Kao, graduate student. Read more… |
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“It was incredibly satisfying to help create a page for someone I so respected.” – Chelsea Sutcliffe, post-doctoral research fellow in earth sciences. Read more… |
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“How can I act as a counterbalancing force, I often wondered, while working as a full-time chemistry graduate student? Editing the articles on Wikipedia – the fifth most visited website in the world – to improve the visibility of women scientists and their work sounded like the perfect opportunity for me. It also didn’t hurt that all the work could be done remotely via the web; I didn’t have to leave my graduate school work behind.” – Karen Kwon, graduate student in chemistry. Read more… |