Wikipedia articles on women scientists

Abstract

This essay examines the Wikipedia community's relatively negative attitude toward biographical articles on women scientists, even though several Wikipedia projects have been introduced to counter this tendency. The article also presents ideas for improving the Wikipedia community's approach to gender bias. Wikipedia's gender bias has been often discussed by researchers and Wikipedians themselves, and some claim that the site does not cover women scientists properly. This essay introduces four well-known cases of gender bias and science on Wikipedia: Marie Curie, the Smithsonian Archives “editathon,” Donna Strickland, and Katie Bouman. It argues that not only Wikipedians, but also scientists themselves, must work to improve Wikipedia's articles about women scientists.