Writing Women Back into Science History

The US Department of Education says that women earn 57.4% of bachelor’s degrees. Women receive 62.6% of master’s degrees. But only 31% of degrees and certificates in STEM fields go to women.

This gap has an uneasy, well-known counterpart on Wikipedia. Roughly 80–90% of the volunteers writing Wikipedia are men. It’s perhaps no coincidence that Wikipedia’s biographies of women are often lacking in quality – or don’t exist at all.

Approximately 16.5% of Wikipedia's biographies are about women. That underrepresentation translates to the sciences, and new and experienced Wikipedia contributors ("Wikipedians") are working together to change that.

As a part of the Wikipedia Year of Science and in partnership with the Wiki Education Foundation, the Association for Women in Science (AWIS) has started a campaign to improve Wikipedia's coverage of women in science. AWIS encourages its regional chapter members to host Wikipedia edit-a-thons in honor of Ada Lovelace Day in October 2016.

Edit-a-thon participants will dive in to Wikipedia and create content about women scientists. They will expand stub articles, start new articles, add references, and more.

Information about AWIS-NCC Edit-a-thon

Santa Clara University, a new AWIS institutional partner, will host the edit-a-thon for the AWIS-Northern CA Chapters, AWIS-NCC.

• Date: Saturday, October 15, 2016
• Time: 9AM - 12PM
• Location and address: Santa Clara University, Alumni Science Commons

The Santa Clara Transit Center is across the university main gates at 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara 95053. Public transportation is encouraged!

Please use the fictitious mapping address of 850 Franklin St., Santa Clara, CA 95053 to get to Alumni Science building. It is building #208 on SCU map and directions. Free public street parking. From Franklin Street, go in the glass doors of Alumni Science, turn right down the hallway to the Commons. From the campus side entrance, the middle set of glass doors leads into the Commons.

• RSVP at http://tinyurl.com/SCUEditAThon
• Continental breakfast provided.
• Wifi network: SCU Guest

Resources for organizers

• Steps for organizing a Women in Science Edit-a-thon

Resources for Edit-a-thon participants

• Notes from WikiEd training slides.

Steps before you begin writing your article

1. Create a Wikipedia account, or log in to your existing account.
   • Tip: If you receive an error message due to a rate limit, follow these instructions.
2. If you don't already see your name on the "Editors" tab on this page, enroll yourself. This will allow AWIS to track (and report on!) the great contributions you're making today.
   • Tip: If you receive an "Application Connection Error" message, follow these instructions.
3. Enable the Visual Editor. This is the "WYSIWYG" option on Wikipedia that makes editing look more like Microsoft Word and other familiar programs.

Writing biography articles about women in science

Writing a biography on Wikipedia is easier than it sounds. You're taking available information that's published in a reliable source (not from the scientist in question), and you're summarizing that information in the article. If it's your first time editing Wikipedia, refer to other articles about women in science to model yours after the formatting, style, and tone.

Selecting an article

Navigate to the "Articles" tab of this Dashboard page. Your Edit-a-thon facilitator may have added a list of suggested articles for improvement. If one of these articles interests you, hit the "Select" button. This will assign the article to you and remove it from the list, hopefully preventing another person duplicating the work you'll do.

Don't forget the most important factor in your selection: you must find published sources about her and her achievements. Occasionally, you may pick a scientist whose career has not been reviewed in major reliable publications. Until they and their work is covered by unbiased pieces, they won't meet the requirements for a Wikipedia biography. Note your experiences and what you're learning about information, bias, and privilege.

If you still need to find an article to improve, here are some resources and lists to review:

• List of articles with potential references
  • Here is a list of articles to create with potential sources for your citations. If you select an article that has been added to the Dashboard, check this link for possible references.
• Women in Red
  • The volunteers at Women in Red have compiled one of Wikipedia's most comprehensive portals with missing articles about women scientists. Take some time to read through this page, and you should find someone of interest to you.
• WikiProject Women Scientists
  • This is another group on Wikipedia aiming to add women into science history. They have requests based on missing biographies as well as existing articles needing improvement and expansion.
• Year of Science portal
  • As a part of the Wikipedia Year of Science, editors have created lists of articles about women in science. Here, you can find them separated by discipline (e.g., Chemistry, Sociology, Plant biology).

Building your article

So you've selected a topic, you have references in front of you, and you're ready to get started. But where do you draft the article?

For first-time editors, we recommend starting in your Sandbox, which you'll find linked at the top right on any Wikipedia page. This is your space to practice making your article look just the way you'd like it. Create your new article or draft new sections directly in this space, and we'll show you below how to move the content when you're ready.

Citations and references

A good practice for a new editor is to add a citation after each claim made in the article. This helps other editors and readers easily verify the information you've added, helping make Wikipedia reliable and accurate.

Since you've enabled the Visual Editor (how-to above), citations have never been easier! At the end of your sentence (and the punctuation!), select "Cite" from the toolbar at the top. You can enter a URL (so long as the website is known for fact-checking and neutrality!), DOI, or PMID. "Generate," and if it comes up with a suggestion, select "Insert."

Sections to include

Here are sections of the biography that can get you started for women in science:

• Lead
  • Start with a "lead" that summarizes who she is and why she's notable (e.g., Mary Kaiser (June 11, 1948 – July 10, 2011) was an American chemist. She worked at DuPont, where she was the first woman ever promoted to Senior Research Fellow. A woman scientist of distinction, she was internationally known for her work in environmental analytical chemistry.).
  • Once you've written your whole article, revisit the lead to make sure it reflects the highlights.
• Early life and education
  • You'll likely find information about her undergraduate and graduate studies as well as where she was born/lived. This is a good section for including this information (e.g., "Kaiser was born in Pittston, Pennsylvania on June 11, 1948, and grew up in Exeter, Pennsylvania. She attended Wilkes College for her Bachelor's degree in chemistry, where she graduated in 1970. She received her Master's degree from Saint Joseph's University in 1972, and she completed her Chemistry PhD at Villanova University in 1976.").
• Career and research
  • Here's where you include her areas of research, instruction, and notable work (e.g., "In 1977, Kaiser began working for DuPont, where she was the first woman to become a Senior Research Fellow. Kaiser was an active member of the American Chemical Society, the Chromatography Forum, the Eastern Analytical Symposium, and the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies. In 1985, she was the second woman ever elected Chair of the American Chemical Society's Division of Analytical Chemistry.").
• Publications
  • If your scientists has published books, consider adding that information in its own section (e.g., "Kaiser published Environmental Problem Solving Using Gas Chromatography in 1982. The book became a best-seller within the field.").
• Awards (or "Awards and recognition" or "Recognition and legacy")
  • The scientist you're researching may have received awards from scientific societies and other organizations. This is great to include in the article, especially as awards denote notability.
  • List awards, recognition, and legacy information here. You may add each award as a bullet list or write in paragraphs.
• References
  • This is one of the most important sections on Wikipedia. Luckily, the Visual Editor (which you enabled above!) adds references automatically as you enter citations throughout the article.

Moving your article

For new articles about women in science, see this handout about how to move your article.

If you're updating an existing article, see these recommendations for integrating the new content.

Checklist—before you walk away

Consider the following things when you're finished with your biography of a woman scientist:

• Did you write in your own words?
• Did you proofread your article?
• Is your formatting consistent with the rest of Wikipedia?
• Is every claim cited to a reliable source?
• Did you make links between Wikipedia articles?