Wikipedia: Where are the women?

Teaching Matters Edinburgh

In this episode, Lucy Crompton-Reid, the Chief Executive of Wikimedia UK, is joined by Linda Bauld, Professor of Public Health, Sarah Lappin, head of the Edinburgh Women in STEM Society, and Áine Kavanagh, a former reproductive biology student at the university, to discuss the underrepresentation of women on Wikipedia pages. This episode is the fourth of our Wikimedia Series, which aims to recontextualize Wikimedia’s role in academia on its 21st birthday.

The quartet offers a variety of perspectives on why women are underrepresented on Wikipedia and what can be done about it. They discuss the ‘vicious cycle’ of the media favoring male scientists and how the underrepresentation is not confined to just women. They also discuss: How has the education sector improved in regards to representation of women in STEM? What areas need further improvement? And what is each participant’s call to action? This concise, call-to-action episode is an essential listen for anyone interested in bringing equality to digital spaces and looking to improve the representation of underrepresented groups.

Timestamps:

1:27 – Beginning of conversation, each participant answers: ‘Where are the women?’

5:43 – Are schools and universities doing enough in encouraging girls to pursue STEM careers and supporting them when they do so?

8:15 – Each participant shares one thing they would encourage the listener to think about differently? What’s their call to action?

Music provided by Hooksounds.