Women in red/expanding Wikipedia's coverage of Women
I am appreciative of the Women in Red project. I believe that women are underrepresented on Wikipedia. There are many notable women that have been overlooked. And many others with articles that are severely underdeveloped. The gender-gap in editors contributes to this.
I am mindful to improve articles on female subjects, and also work to create new articles on areas missing coverage.
I do not tend to go straight to the Women in Red project for inspiration on articles to create. Instead, as with most articles, I create new articles when my reading brings me across a subject not currently covered on Wikipedia. Nevertheless, several new biographic articles I have created were coincidentally women that happened to be listed there (Laura Swing Kemeys for instance). Other biographies I started were on women who had not been identified by the women in red project. Some examples of new biographies of women I have started include:
I have created articles on a sizable number of elections in which women were prominent candidates. In addition to this, a sizeable number of existing articles I have expanded are on female politicians. I have also contributed significantly to a number articles some articles related to women in entertainment.
I also have greatly expanded a number of existing articles on women, most often women in the spheres of government and politics.
This all said, I do think that no matter what, Wikipedia will have far more articles on male subjects than female subjects. This is due to a number of factors.
1) Throughout much of history, relatively few women had their lives and contributions recorded.
2) For the vast majority of recorded history, most women were relegated to household roles and barred by societies from achieving public accomplishments.
3) At this moment, men's professional sports have a larger number of prominent leagues and receive more attention overall. Additionally, the notable women's leagues that do exist tend to be far younger than their male counterparts. Additionally, gender parity in number of participants at the Olympics has taken a long time to come (expected to be reached for the first time in 2024). Therefore, there are more male athletes than female athletes that will meet Wikipedia:Notability.
4) At this moment, most governments have an underrepresentation of women. This is true not for just executive and legislative offices, but also judicial ones. Therefore, even today, there are a greater number of incumbent male officeholders that meet Wikipedia:Notability than incumbent female officeholders.
5) The same underrepresentation of women currently exists for corporate boardrooms. Therefore, there are more active male businesspeople that will meet Wikipedia:Notability than active female businesspeople.
Disclosure
Notice of paid work relating to Wikipedia
I have just learned the process through which users must disclose any paid work relating to Wikipedia. I have begun a summer internship with the Wilmette Historical Society. Due to my understanding of how to edit Wikipedia they have asked that I help improve the accuracy of articles relating to Wilmette. I will receive a stipend for my work as an intern. Since the key interest of the Wilmette Historical Society is that the information published on Wikipedia be accurate, this should not noticebly hamper my ability to provide impartial editing. However, per Wikipedia policy, I must disclose this. I invite other users to bring to my attention any apparent bias in my edits relating to the Village of Wilmette.
I also wish to clarify that I only began my internship this summer. Any and and all previous edits relating to Wilmette did not have this potential COI attached to them. SecretName101 (talk) 21:20, 10 June 2017 (UTC)
Update: My aforementioned tenure of employment ended several weeks ago. SecretName101 (talk) 06:39, 5 September 2017 (UTC)
