Event:W4SAfrica Wiki Women in Red Workshop

W4SAfrica Wiki Women in Red Workshop/Mentorship Program

Women representation on Wikipedia

Recognizing the indispensable role of women's participation and empowerment in our society, it is imperative to equip them with the skills required to empower their participation and contribution. The Wikimedia ecosystem, encompassing Wikipedia and its sister projects, is no exception to this necessity. With just 9% of Wikipedians editors being women, there is a noticeable gender imbalance that significantly shapes the content available on these Wikimedia platforms. This systematic gender bias amongst wikipedia editors has led to the low representation of women on Wikipedia. For every 5 biographies one is about a woman. Even with the 25% biographies of women representation only 20% of the total women have photos attached to their articles. 

Women in Red

In response to this challenge and with the intention to enrich the diversity of Wikimedia content, there is the need to empower more women to be part of the Wikimedia Ecosystem. Women for Sustainability Africa presents Women in Red Wiki Training. The project aims to empower a network of young women by providing them with the tools, knowledge, and resources needed to become active participants of the Wikimedia community. Our goal is to celebrate the Wiki Women In Red Anniversary while fostering a more inclusive Wikimedia community.

What is Wiki Women in Red?

Women in Red is a WikiProject addressing the current gender bias in Wikipedia content. The project focuses on creating content regarding women's biographies, women's works, and women's issues.

The project is named after the hyperlinks in existing Wikipedia articles that display in red to indicate that the linked article has yet to be created. Since the inception of Ada Lovelace Day, Wikipedia edit-a-thons have been popular activities. Research at these events often discovered notable women in STEM who did not have Wikipedia pages, therefore a red link could be created for that person.

Objectives of the Wiki Women in Red Workshop

• Recruit new women and train them on Wikipedia projects eg Wikipedia Wikidata.
• Enroll selected women on a mentorship project where they are paired with experienced Wikimedians to improve their editing skills.
  • At the end of the mentorship program new editors will have to achieve targeted editing.
• Encourage women's contribution on Wikipedia by organizing a contest to bridge knowledge gaps about women on Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons

Participate

Who is Eligible?

• Anyone is welcome to participate to bridge the knowledge gap on women. More especially we encourage the participation of Women, Girls

What to contribute

• Articles about notable women in Sports, Science and Technology, Sustainability etc

Which Wikimedia Projects

• Wikipedia
• Wikidata
• Wikimedia Commons etc

Join Mentorship Program

Are you a newbie and aspire to take your Wikipedia editing skills to the next level? We offering free mentorship program to 10 selected Women who will be paired with experienced editors. Target for each mentee by the end of the mentorship program is to;

• Create at least 3 new Wikidata items about a woman.

• Improve 2 Wikipedia articles about women on Wikipedia.

• Upload 5 photos on Wikimedia commons at the end of the mentorship to be eligible for data reimbursement.

Register Here

Step 1: Register to participating!

Create Account

Step 2: Create your Wiki account if you have none!

Dashboard

Step 3: Join dashboard for the writing contest!

Contribute

Step 4: Learn how to write on Wikipedia!

Join Edit Contest and Win a Prizes

Outstanding contributors stand the chance of winning awards or souvenirs. You will also be part of the effort aimed at bridging the gender gap online. To ensure that your contributions are tracked and also stand the chance of winning a prize do well to sign up on the dashboard here.

The prizes for the Wiki Women in Red Contest includes:

• Gift awards for top 3
• Souvenirs
• certificates for everyone who participated

NB: Content must be strictly related to women in order to be selected for prizes. Check Article List for more details. Make small edits to Win an award.

Article list suggestion

Are you struggling to find topics to write about? Visit our list of suggested articles to find an article of interest!

Join our Virtual Training/Office Hours

Not sure how to contribute or what to do? Here's a list of dates where we'll be hosting office hours to answer all your questions. Contributing to Wikipedia is easier when you can learn with others. Here are a few events to get you started.

Virtual Office Hours

Date	Event	Time	Link
Tues 28th Nov, 2023	Virtual Wikipedia Editing Hands-On	3pm - 4:30 PM UTC	ZOOM
Tues 5th Dec, 2023	Virtual Wikidata Intro and Editing	3:00PM - 4:30 PM UTC	ZOOM
Tues 12th Dec, 2023	Virtual Office Hour/Wikimedia Commons	3:00 PM - 4:30 PM UTC	ZOOM'
Tues 19th Dec, 2023	Virtual Office Hour/Wiki Quotes	3:00PM - 4:30PM UTC	ZOOM