Great blog by Keilana! Feel free to ping me if you'd like to write your own blog about your project - all languages and projects welcome!!! -Sarah (See below) https://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/12/18/wikiproject-women-scientists-invites-… Starting a WikiProject is a pretty big undertaking, what with sorting out the templates, tagging thousands of articles, and recruiting new members. But I have to say, startingWikiProject Women Scientists <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Women_scientists>with Sarah Stierch has been one of the most rewarding experiences I've had in my 5 1/2 years contributing to Wikipedia. <https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d0/Aedes_aegypti.jpg/320px-Aedes_aegypti.jpg> Biologist Anne Bishop studied the "Aedes aegypti" I had never consciously noticed the gender gap <http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/04/27/nine-out-of-ten-wikipedians-continue-to-be-men/> until it was pointed out to me that, as a female Wikipedian, I was a pretty rare commodity. That was a bit of a wake-up call, and I started to think about the systemic bias inherent in Wikipedia, a reference work largely compiled by white males from the Western world. On Ada Lovelace Day <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace_Day#Commemoration>, I decided to create an article about biologist Ann Bishop <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Bishop_%28biologist%29> as my contribution, which was quickly promoted as a /Did you know.../ <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Keilana#DYK_for_Ann_Bishop_.28biologist.29> and became a Good Article <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Good_articles> a couple of weeks later. Throughout that process I realized just how many female scientist articles were missing, even among the erstwhile ranks of the Fellows of the Royal Society <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_Fellows_of_the_Royal_Society>. I also realized that, as motivated as I was, I couldn't write those articles alone. Thus, a WikiProject was born, and since then, it has gathered 15 members! I want to take a second to invite you to join the project! We have a fairlyactive discussion page <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Women_scientists>where plenty of people are happy to answer questions. The silver lining of systemic bias is that there's a lot of work to do and a lot of ways that people can contribute. A common public opinion is that "if it's not on Wikipedia it doesn't exist" -- so, to our readers, many important, influential scientists "don't exist." Let's change that! Go to Wikipedia:WikiProject Women scientists <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Women_scientists> to join us! /Wikipedia User:Keilana <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Keilana>/ * Copyright notes:Aedes aegypti" <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aedes_aegypti.jpg%22>byMuhammad Mahdi Karim <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Muhammad_Mahdi_Karim>, underGNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:GNU_Free_Documentation_License_1.2>, from Wikimedia Commons. -- *Sarah Stierch* */Museumist and open culture advocate/*