Wikimedia UK publishes 'Closing the Gender Gap' film

Wikimedia UK, the charity responsible for promoting Wikipedia in the UK, have published a short film about the charity's work to reduce gender bias on Wikipedia. Over the past few years, gender bias on Wikipedia in terms of the lack of content about women, and the lack of female editors, has generated considerable press, especially around the work of Dr Jess Wade, a physicist at Imperial College London. Wade has created hundreds of biographies for women in STEM subjects since 2018, and her work has been recognised and the problem of the gender gap highlighted by numerous media outlets.

What this coverage often doesn't show is the huge amount of work going on behind the scenes by charities like Wikimedia UK and their community of volunteer editors to address systemic bias on Wikimedia projects like Wikipedia.

Sexism is a problem all across the internet, and in society at large. Wikimedia UK has made it one of their strategic goals to reduce systemic bias on Wikipedia, not just in the area of gender bias, but inequality and bias more generally.

"One of our strategic aims [for the past 3 years] was to increase the coverage of underrepresented subjects on Wikipedia, and to diversify its content and contributors. At Wikimedia UK, we are proud of the fact that half of our leading volunteers are women, and that volunteer contributors and partner organisations that we work for have helped to increase the percentage of biographies about women on the English Wikipedia from 14-18%", said Lucy Crompton-Reid, Wikimedia UK's Chief Executive.

"There is still so much more work to be done. We hope this video will explain a little bit about what our charity and the individuals, communities and organisations that we work with have done over the last few years to close the gender gap, and encourage others, like you, to get involved"