UN Women Her Story

United Nations Women Edit-a-thon "Her Story" is a global project and Edit-a-Thon that will be held on 2016 International Youth Day (August 12th, 2016). This event is organized by Wikipedia community, supported by United Nations Women and joined by UN Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth. The main event will be held in UN Women Headquarter in New York City, and many local events, as well as virtual Edit-a-Thon, which aim to promote Wikipedia content on gender gap.

Project Founders

May Hachem (May Hachem93), WikiProject Women founder in MENA and Wikipedia Education Program leader in Egypt, Regional Project Coordinator of Her Story Campaign, with the UN Women Regional Office in Cairo and EmpowerWomen.org

Her Story campaign

Knowledge is both a resource and an investment, and like all other forms of wealth, it is often deferentially distributed throughout a social system. In many areas, information simply does not exist, and where it does exist, it is often sexist. Gender knowledge gaps and biases reinforce the harmful stereotypes and practices, and often misrepresent women and girls, and undercut or undervalue their contributions locally and globally. It is 2016, and we cannot tolerate leaving women and girls behind anymore.

Why does closing the gender knowledge gap and Wikipedia matter?

With a better understanding of the way women and girls live their lives, and the specific inequalities and injustices that hold them back every day, communities can identify the challenges and fix them. Recognizing the contribution of women through history can defy the current stereotypes about women and provide positive models for girls and the world. Gathering and analyzing data makes the invisible women more visible.

Wikipedia editors have real implications on millions of users daily as it the sixth-most-visited website on the Internet and over 1,796,235 sites share links to Wikipedia pages. The emergence of interactive crowdsourced information may help in closing the knowledge gap as essential knowledge and information is now accessible to people of all socioeconomic backgrounds and in all corners of the globe. The current content on the Internet is created by everyday people, for everyday people. Closing the gender gap requires first closing the data gap as a foundational step.

HerStory Edit-a-Thon

As Wikipedia compiles what represents close to the sum of all human knowledge, women should be recognized as part of that sum. Empower Women by UN Women, Wikimedia Foundation, the UN Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth, the UN Inter-agency Network on Youth Development's Working Group on Youth and Gender Equality, and a group of volunteer champions are working on enhancing and increasing the content on Wikipedia related to women and gender equality to raise awareness, close the gender knowledge gap, and start changing and editing the future. The initiative aligns with UN Women’s youth strategy that focuses on strengthening the leadership of young women in all spheres, economic empowerment and skills development of young women and promoting action on ending violence against young women and girls. It calls for investing in young women’s knowledge development and young women led knowledge creation.

If you believe in the notion of online collaboration for the greater good and gender equality and have been impacted by an inspiring woman in your lifetime, join our campaign and make them more visible to inspire millions. Help us celebrate HerStory edit-a-thons to close the gender knowledge gap on International Youth Day on 12 August. Our HerStory Group of Champions have already started to compile profiles of women who have made a difference in our history and this work will be highlighted on Wikipedia as well. Join HerStory edit-a-thons to contribute, promote, and celebrate women of the world. Make sure you going to be an agent of this herstorical change.

International Youth Day Event

A series of HerStory edit-a-thons will be held on August 12th, which is International Youth Day in many cities around the globe and online. At the UN Headquarters in New York, the HerStory edit-a-thon will be convening 600 participants to edit and write for Wikipedia. The day-long event will include an opening, a Wikipedia 101 brief tutorial, a full day of writing and editing, featured speakers from our partners, breaks for coffee and networking, and a closing speech.

Edit-a-thons dedicated to this campaign have been organized all over the world to increase the coverage of women's topics on Wikipedia and to encourage more women to edit Wikipedia. These event are supported by Empower Women, the Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth, the UN Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth, the UN Inter-agency Network on Youth Development's Working Group on s Youth and Gender Equality, the Wikipedia volunteer community, and thousands of volunteers and initiatives from all over the world. Partner organizations and professional volunteers will provide resources, mentors, and technology to help guide newer editors through the process. The knowledge produced will be focusing on recognizing the contribution of female leaders and especially young women, produce articles about the concepts of gender equality and its champions, and offer a youth friendly content about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Reserve a spot and make a difference in NYC and globally.

Goals

Overall Goals

2016 - 2017 Goals

enhance the presence of women and knowledge about them
emphasize the disappearance of women from society: “extinction of our species”
narrow the gender gap
equal and quality representation of women
enhance the quality of the already published knowledge about women

2018 Goals

Main Goals

Increase the number of editors, both of female editors and of male editors writing about women
Increase the number of articles, including writing new articles and editing existing articles

New Articles

Identify lacking areas through data
Economic empowerment
Focus on articles about women and about movements and topic pages

Edit Articles

Verifying sources and references
Make pages gender-sensitive and less biased
Fill in missing information

Methods to achieve the aims

Social media campaign (Here)
How-to video tutorials/PDF instructions (English / Arab)
Journalism coverage/Op-eds

Targeted invites

Artists
Writers
Women’s organizations
NGOs
Celebrities
Academics
Researchers
Libraries

Social media

#HerStory

Facebook

Her Story - قصتها

Virtual Edit-a-Thon

Alphabetical by country, Global events with event pages at top

Language	Trainer/ Organiser	Country or Region or Language	Event page
(English) Other languages	Wikiwomen, Women in Red (Rosiestep)	Global	Event page: Celebrating the Wikipedia and United Nations Women Project
(English) / (Hindi)	Wednesday Wisdom by Women (AVI Arogya) (AgriVaidic Integration)	India	Wednesday Wisdom by Women RisingIndia ThinkTank
(Marathi) / (Hindi)	Abhishek Suryawanshi (AbhiSuryawanshi)	India	Volunteers
(Italian)	WikiDonne (Camelia, Susanna, Antonietta)	Italy	Event page: Un progetto Wikipedia e United Nations Women
(Spanish)	Wikimujeres, Wikimedia Argentina, Wikimedia México (Raystorm)	Spanish Volunteers from Argentina, Mexico, Spain...	Event page: Celebrando el proyecto Wikipedia y ONU Mujeres
(Arabic)	May Hachem (May Hachem93)	Algeria	Volunteers Event Page on Arabic Wikipedia
(Arabic)	May Hachem (May Hachem93)	Egypt	WikiWomen Course students
(Arabic)	May Hachem (May Hachem93)	Iraq	Volunteers
(Arabic)	May Hachem (May Hachem93)	Libya	Volunteers
(Arabic)	May Hachem (May Hachem93)	Mauritania	Volunteers
(Arabic)	May Hachem (May Hachem93)	Morocco	Volunteers
(Arabic)	May Hachem (May Hachem93)	Palestine	Volunteers
(Arabic)	May Hachem (May Hachem93)	Saudi Arabia	Volunteers
(Arabic)	(May Hachem93, Meriem Mach)	Tunisia	Volunteers
(Arabic)	May Hachem (May Hachem93)	Yemen	Volunteers

Events

Alphabetical by country, UN HQ at top

Language	Contact Person	Date	Location	Detail
(English)	Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight (Rosiestep) Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight Emad Karim @ UN Women	Friday August 12, 2016 9:30 am to 5:00 pm	New York @ United Nations United Nations Headquarters Trusteeship Council Conference Room 46th Street & 1st Avenue New York, 10017 USA	event page: UN Women NYC registration: Eventbrite
(Arabic) (English)	May Hachem (May Hachem93) May Hachem	Friday August 12, 2016 9:30 am to 5:00 pm	Egypt THE GrEEK CAMPUS Falaki Gate بوابة الفلكى: 28 Falaki Street, Bab El Louk, Cairo رقم 28 شارع الفلكى، باب اللوق z-11513 Gallery Room, THE GrEEK CAMPUS 28 Falaki Street Bab El Louk, Downtown, Cairo, Egypt	registration: Eventbrite
(Chinese)		Friday August 12, 2016	Macau SAR Macau SAR, China
(English)	Kirthi Jayakumar	Friday August 12, 2016 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm	Chennai, India The Red Elephant Foundation That Madras Place 34/29, Kasturibai Nagar 2nd Main Road Chennai, India 600020	registration: Eventbrite Facebook
(English)	Chetna Sabharwal	Friday August 12, 2016 11:00 am to 2:00 pm	Delhi, India Sayfty Ahlcon International School Mayur Vihar Phase 1 Delhi 110091 India	registration: Eventbrite
(English)	Sammy Sahni	Friday August 12, 2016 10:00 am to 12:00 pm	Hyderabad, India Sayfty 6-3-249/3a, Saaz Apartments, 2nd floor Road No.1, Banjara Hills Hyderabad - 500034, India	registration: Eventbrite
(English)		Friday, August 12, 2016	Manila Manila, Philippines
(Spanish)	Nelly Andrade	Friday August 12, 2016 3:00 pm to 7:30 pm	México City, México HomeWork Coworking Space Plaza de la República #9 Piso 1 Col. Tabacalera Del. Cuahutémoc C.P. 06030 Ciudad de México	registration: Eventbrite Facebook
(Spanish)	Mónica Lerith Meléndez Nelly Andrade	Friday August 12, 2016 11:00 am to 3:00 pm	Monterrey, México Tecnológico de Monterrey Campus Monterrey Eugenio Garza Sada 2501 64849 Monterrey, México	registration: Eventbrite Facebook
(Korean)	E. A. Gu (Motoko C. K.)	Saturday Date TBD	Seoul Seoul, South Korea	event page: 위키백과:UN 여성 기구 허스토리 에디터톤
(Arabic) (English)	Daria Solovieva @ Ella	Thursday August 18, 2016 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm	Dubai, United Arab Emirates Tell Her Story with Ella In5 Innovation Centre Boutique Villa #7 Dubai Knowledge Village Dubai, United Arab Emirates	registration: Facebook
(English)	Billy Hill @ ONE	Friday August 12, 2016 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm	London, United Kingdom ONE 4189 Shaftsbury Avenue London, England	registration: Eventbrite
(Arabic) (English)	May Hachem (May Hachem93) May Hachem	Saturday December 10, 2016 9:30 am to 4:00 pm	Egypt Al Ahram Publishing House HQ,Cairo, Egypt
(Arabic) (English)	May Hachem (May Hachem93) May Hachem	Wednesday March 8, 2017 9:30 am to 4:00 pm	Egypt Online Editathon,Cairo, Egypt
(Arabic) (English)	May Hachem (May Hachem93) May Hachem	Friday December 1, 2017 10:00 am to 5:00 pm	Egypt UN Women Regional Office for Arab States Villa 37, Street No. 85, Sarayat El Maadi, Cairo, Egypt	registration: Facebook
(Arabic) (English)	May Hachem (May Hachem93) May Hachem	Saturday December 23, 2017 9:30 am to 5:00 pm	Egypt THE GrEEK CAMPUS Falaki Gate بوابة الفلكى: 28 Falaki Street, Bab El Louk, Cairo رقم 28 شارع الفلكى، باب اللوق z-11513 The Library Hall, THE GrEEK CAMPUS 28 Falaki Street Bab El Louk, Downtown, Cairo, Egypt	registration: Facebook