This year Universiry of Helsinki celebrated International Women’s Day by organizing the largest edit-a-thon together with Kiasma and Wikipedia Finland at the University’s main library Kaisa House. It gathered 120 participants from various backgrounds to edit and write articles of 100 influential Finnish women figures.
Wikipedia is one of the most important sources of information worldwide and gets millions of visitors and reviews each day, however only one in five biographies are written about a female person. The Women’s Day edit-a-thon was organized to raise awareness of the unequal coverage of women in Wikipedia. As the gender gap is huge on the site, a group of volunteers wanted to take concrete action by organizing the event, together with experienced Wikipedists. Throughout the day, women’s contribution to the arts and sciences were edited and published and this Women’s Day effort became the largest Finnish Wikipedia’s editing event.
First session of the day at the University’s main library Kaisa House
The event generated over 80 Wikipedia biographies in Finnish, Swedish, English and Spanish and volunteers who attended the event will continue to edit or publish additional articles in the future. Some of the biographies published on important women influencers included Mathilda Wilhelmina Rotkirch, the first female Finnish artist, Jenny Maria Markelin-Svensson, the first female Finnish engineer and Aili Annikki Nenola, professor emerita and a pioneer of women’s studies in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Helsinki.
Edit-a-thon sessions throughout the day
The event was organized together with nine co-operative organizations from various museums and academic societies, who had the responsibility to identify and propose hundred influential women figures for the event. Read more about the initiative from the Wikipedia Year of Science 2016 website. For those interested to join the Art Goes Feminism –network and write biographies on interesting women figures, you may find out more information here: http://art.plusfeminism.org/about/.
All photos copyright of Teemu Perhiö / CC BY SA 4.0