12 February 2025
Turning Red into Blue: Closing the Gender gap on Wikipedia
February 11 marked the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, a day dedicated to recognizing the contributions of women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and to advocating for greater gender equity in these fields.
While the presence of women in science has steadily increased over the years, their representation in historical and digital records remains a significant challenge. One telling indicator of this issue is the representation of women in scientific biographies on Wikipedia: in October 2014, only 15.53% of biographies on the English Wikipedia were about women [1].
The gender imbalance in Wikipedia content is a well-known issue, reflecting broader systemic biases in historical documentation and media coverage and resulting in significantly fewer articles about women compared to men [2].
Wikipedia is one of the primary sources of knowledge in the digital world and such imbalance influences how knowledge is perceived. Gender gap in Wikipedia biographies also affects the depth and quality of coverage, as articles about women are often shorter, less detailed, and flagged for deletion more frequently than those about men.
Thanks to various initiatives over the years [3], the proportion of women's biographies has gradually risen: today, the percentage of women's biographies on the English Wikipedia is estimated to be over 20% [4]. However, disparities persist, as women in STEM continue to be underrepresented in online reference sources compared to their male counterparts.
While the world was celebrating the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, MaX dedicated February 11 to reduce systemic bias in Wikipedia content.
Our initiative focused on editing and improving the Wikipedia biography of MaX coordinator, Prof. Elisa Molinari (CNR-Nano and UNIMORE), and creating her biography pages in other languages beyond English (+).
Increasing the visibility of women scientists involves ensuring that their achievements are documented, celebrated, and easily accessible. Within this narrative, creating and expanding the biographies of women scientists in Wikipedia are essential steps to help close the gender gap.
Our effort serves as a reminder that representation matters. Creating new Wikipedia biographies about notable women in science is a small action with a long-lasting impact. Recognizing and amplifying the voices of women in STEM not only honors their achievements but also inspires future generations of women to pursue careers in science, ensuring a more inclusive and equitable future for all.
One small step for MaX, one giant leap for the scientific community.
References
[1] First Women, Second Sex | Proceedings of the 26th ACM Conference on Hypertext & Social Media
[2] The Gender Divide in Wikipedia: Quantifying and Assessing the Impact of Two Feminist Interventions
[3] Wikipedia WikiProject Women in Red
[4] Wikidata Gender Metrics
(+) Wikipedia’s notability guidelines make it harder for women to qualify for biographies, especially in male-dominated fields where fewer women reach high levels of recognition. To have a biography on Wikipedia, a person should have received significant coverage in reliable, independent sources. This usually includes books, newspapers, academic papers, or high-level websites. Many notable women struggle to qualify for Wikipedia biographies due to systemic biases in historical records, media, and Wikipedia’s editing culture. With these premises, MaX could only create the biography of its coordinator, who qualified for Wikipedia's notability standards.