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Welcome to Women in Red!

Reaching a milestone of 20% in December 2024, Women in Red changes notable women's representation on Wikipedia from red-linked obscurity to an encyclopedic presence.
Find us ...
Here:
or athttps://w.wiki/347

About

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Welcome to Women in Red (WiR)! We are a group of volunteer (unpaid) editors of all genders who live around the world and belong to many different language and cultural communities. While our project extends over many language versions of Wikipedia, this page is principally devoted to our efforts on the English-language Wikipedia.

We focus on reducing systemic bias regarding gender representation (content gender gap) in the Wikipedia movement. Our goal is to "move the needle" in terms of statistical representation of women and non-binary people on Wikipedia. We recognized a need for this work in 2014 when we learned that, as of October 2014, only 15.53% of English Wikipedia's biographies were about women.[1] Without a particular percentage in mind, we recognized that with persistence, we could increase it, one article at a time. With only this in mind, Women in Red was established in July 2015, at Wikimania Mexico City, by Roger Bamkin and Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight.

Women in Red is a very large, on-wiki-based community thanks to you, the editors who participate in our work. Did you know that it is also the most active topic-based WikiProject by human changes? Join us!

What we cover

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Our initial and still-primary focus has been women's biographies—we have tools to measure our progress on these—but our scope includes articles addressing women's representation generally, including works created by women (literature, paintings, sculptures, music, etc.) and topics related to women's suffrage, education, health, history, sports, organizations and conferences. The various headings included under Lists of women reflect the scope of our interests.

Winner of the Wikimania Coolest Projects celebration

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On 25 July 2026 at Wikimania Paris, with support from Rosiestep, Women in Red was selected as the winner of the Coolest Projects celebration-

Over 20% of biographies now about women

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According to Humaniki, the percentage of women's biographies on the English Wikipedia is now over 20%: specifically reaching 20.003% by 16 December 2024. Using QLever, as of 5 September 2026, it had risen further to 20.41%. That means that of 2,148,850 biographies, only 438,478 are about women.[2] Not impressed? "Content gender gap" is a form of systemic bias, and WiR addresses it in a positive way through shared values.

Can we increase the percentage still further? Yes! But we need you in order to do so. How? There are more than 34,000 general forum comments from over 1,200 different editors on our talkpage.[3] Ask there. You don't have to be a member in order to participate in the conversations; just please be civil.

Do the articles have to be perfect when they are created? No. But establishing them according to Wikipedia's policies is the first step, and that's the focus of Women in Red: new article creation. Over time, other editors will improve these articles; maybe that's you.

Where the work is done

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On Wikipedia

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Our Wikipedia WikiProject focuses on creating content regarding women's biographies, women's works, and women's issues. Our editors create articles in many different language Wikipedias. The objective is to turn "redlinks" (like this one) into blue ones. That's why we are called "Women in Red".

We take an inclusive view towards subject matter, editors, and language communities:

  • Editors: We do not focus on the gender of the editor. Anyone/everyone is welcome to be a member, participant, enthusiast of Women in Red. If you participate in WiR, you can join up officially. You are also welcome to add our userbox template {{User WikiProject Women in Red}} to your user page, to produce:
  • Language communities: While Women in Red began on English Wikipedia, it is an international commitment with dozens of other language communities. Please add a link to your language's coordination page here.
  • Subject matter:
    • If the subject of the article self-identifies as a woman, a non-binary person, and/or any other gender minority, that person is included within the scope of Women in Red. Historic cases where it's unknown how they self-identified also count. The goal of the project is to increase inclusion, and we'd rather not block article subjects from being included in an article creation drive.
    • In addition to creating new articles, we create and maintain hundreds of lists of "missing" notable women. Some of these women have an article on some language Wikipedia, while others have no article in any Wikipedia. We call these lists, "redlists".
    • Click on our Redlinks index to see our lists of missing articles by focus area, occupation and nationality. Like everything else on Wikipedia, this is incomplete, so feel free to add pertinent items to our crowd-sourced lists.
    • While all redlists have redlinks, our redlists are generated in numerous ways:

Wikimedia Commons

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"Sue"

Every year, our members upload thousands of images to Wikimedia Commons: photographs of women, their signatures, their works, etc. In turn, these images can be added to Wikipedia articles. This is another way people can be involved in improving women's representation on Wikipedia. In recent years, an average of over 5,000 images have been added each year..

Wikidata

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We create and improve Wikidata items related to women, women's works, and women's issues.

Announcements

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Please post recent announcements directly on this page for improved page editing history, watcher alerts and greater visibility

Add new announcements to the top. Sign with ~~~~. Remove old ones after a couple of months.

Events

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For a complete list of events, visit Wikipedia:WikiProject Women in Red/Events.

Ongoing initiatives

  • 2026 year-long initiative: #1day1woman: 2026
  • 2026 year-long initiative: Sports

    • New for this month

    • September 2026: Writers & their works
    • September 2026: Alphabet run: Countries starting with P, Q & R
    • September 2026: Labour activists

      • Recently completed

      • August 2026: Indigenous women
      • August 2026: Alphabet run: Countries starting with N and O
      • August 2026: Women born before 1900

        • Upcoming events

        • October 2026: Women in STEM
        • October 2026: Alphabet run: Countries starting with S
        • October 2026: Awards
          • [edit]

          WiR works by filling in missing articles based on extensive lists of needed topics. The index to our wide range of topics and nationalities can be found at the Redlist index. Please make these red links blue. Notable women without a Wikipedia biography can be added to any crowd-sourced redlists they match; and added to wikidata such that they're included in wikidata-derived redlists. We also have a guide to adding names to redlists, and to creating new redlists.

          Article alerts

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          This section is a transcluded subpage, and may contain more information than is shown here. To view or edit, go to /Article alerts (watch this section).
          Note: This report is based on the {{WIR}} banners of WikiProject Women in Red. If an article isn't listed here, first verify that it has one of those banners. If it has another women-related banner, like {{WikiProject Women}}, {{WikiProject Women's History}} or {{WikiProject Women scientists}}, look on those projects' article alert pages instead. See Wikipedia:WikiProject Women/Article alerts for alerts about women articles in general.

          Did you know

          (15 more...)

          Articles for deletion

          Proposed deletions

          (15 more...)

          Featured article candidates

          Good article nominees

          (6 more...)

          Requests for comments

          Requested moves

          Articles for creation

          Declined drafts

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          Thanks firstly to Ronhjones, and now to Galobtter, we have a bot showing declined drafts submitted to AfC. Weekly updates highlight those most recently listed under New Additions. With a little bit of attention, some of them could well be moved to mainspace, encouraging the editors who created them to progress on Wikipedia.

          Resources and research

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          WiR maintains resources to help you contribute, including lists of topical books and external links, information on editing in general, and contacts you can reach out to for specific needs. They can be found at Resources.

          Academic research on Wikipedia's content gender gap is also documented at Research.

          Metrics

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          This section is a transcluded subpage, containing more information than is shown here. To view detailed month-by-month results or to edit, go to Metrics.

          About: additional details

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          The articles created for any month, including the current month, can be displayed by clicking on one of the months in the archive box.

          We track the articles we create each month. Reports bot updates these lists automatically, but you can manually add and annotate entries. The bot will remove non-existent pages. More details about the bot. Our metrics talkpage is here: Metrics talkpage

          The evolving list for this month (see Archives box) is created by the bot which lists new women's biographies on the basis of their female gender on Wikidata. At present, the bot does not list women's works, associations or related articles.

          Wikidata

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          A WiR Wikidata page provides information on how you can help ensure WiR metrics are up-to-date.

          Totals at a glance

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          Year Portion if
          applicable          		 Total Daily
          average
          201518 Jul – 31 Dec11,71170
          201628,39977
          201728,27177
          201827,32375
          201927,20775
          202030,11982
          202126,78073
          202218,89352
          202317,92549
          202420,14255
          202518,85452
          Grand total255,624

          Updated: Rosiestep (talk) 23:49, 11 February 2025 (UTC)reply

          Summary of Women in Red statistics from main page

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          DateWomenBiosPercentageIncrease in
           % for year          		Increase
          in women
          for year          		Increase
          in bios
          for year          		Percentage
          for year
          30-Sep-2015205,8141,299,04715.84%
          1-Jan-2017240,4451,432,90716.78%0.94%34,631133,86025.87%
          1-Jan-2018262,0991,509,34817.37%0.58%21,65476,44128.33%
          31-Dec-2018279,9591,573,34117.79%0.43%17,86063,99327.91%
          30-Dec-2019305,0721,678,32318.18%0.38%25,113104,98223.92%
          11-Jan-2021332,6221,778,12618.71%0.53%27,55099,80327.60%
          3-Jan-2022356,4391,865,51619.11%0.40%23,81787,39027.25%
          2-Jan-2023373,2631,921,35919.43%0.32%16,82455,84330.13%
          1-Jan-2024390,2071,978,99119.72%0.29%16,94457,63229.40%
          30-Dec-2024408,8402,042,97520.01%0.29%18,63363,98429.12%
          31-Dec-2025427,0042,107,08920.27%0.26%18,16464,11428.33%
          Total4.43%221,190808,04227.37%

          Notes:

          In October 2014 English Wikipedia had 1,445,021 biographical articles, according to a paper referenced on the project's main page. The number of biographies reported by Humaniki only caught up with this figure in 2017, which suggests that Humaniki information was incomplete until at least then.

          The September 2015 figure was reported here.

          The figure of 20% (408,183 women out of 2,040,570 biographies) was achieved in the 16 December 2024 update. TSventon (talk) 21:42, 23 January 2026 (UTC)reply

          Further background on metrics

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          As a result of figures presented by Humaniki, we keep posting on the main Women in Red page the percentage of women's biographies on the English version of Wikipedia. Increases are steady but marginal: for example from July 2022 to July 2023, the percentage has risen from around 19.3% to around 19.6%.

          Thanks to an analysis presented by Andrew Gray on the WIR talk page, it certainly looks as if the number of men and women involved in sports has a significant influence on the statistics for women. A detailed account of Gray's work is presented in "Gender and BLPs on Wikipedia, redux", which he published on 2 August 2023.

          The two lists below show that biographies of living people (BLPs) born in recent years are approximately 50% female if data on all categories of athletes are excluded. By contrast, the equivalent overall figures (including athletes) are only around 25%. As a result, biographies of very large numbers of male sportspeople seem to be responsible for the huge difference. Andrew Gray's detailed lists below document how figures for BLPs by year of birth have evolved over the years:

          Overall development of BLPs since the 1920s for all biographies

          • Missing birth year BLPs – 150,574, of which 53,355 female – 35.4%
          • 1920s birth BLPs – 5,096, of which 1,325 female – 26.0%
          • 1930s birth BLPs – 39,055, of which 7,086 female – 18.1%
          • 1940s birth BLPs – 95,602, of which 18,495 female – 19.3%
          • 1950s birth BLPs – 128,518, of which 27,172 female – 21.1%
          • 1960s birth BLPs – 145,300, of which 33,390 female – 23.0%
          • 1970s birth BLPs – 150,539, of which 37,893 female – 25.2%
          • 1980s birth BLPs – 171,072, of which 42,880 female – 25.1%
          • 1990s birth BLPs – 150,880, of which 36,944 female – 24.5%
          • 2000s birth BLPs – 30,042, of which 7,542 female – 25.1%

          Development of BLPs since the 1920s for biographies excluding athletes

          If we discount all athletes using the infobox method, the results are:

          • Missing birth year BLPs – 140,177, of which 51,021 female – 36.4%
          • 1920s birth BLPs – 4,321, of which 1,228 female – 28.4%
          • 1930s birth BLPs – 28,978, of which 6,161 female – 21.2%
          • 1940s birth BLPs – 73,095, of which 16,566 female – 22.7%
          • 1950s birth BLPs – 95,893, of which 23,644 female – 24.7%
          • 1960s birth BLPs – 96,175, of which 26,632 female – 27.8%
          • 1970s birth BLPs – 81,682, of which 27,562 female – 33.7%
          • 1980s birth BLPs – 58,078, of which 24,816 female – 42.7%
          • 1990s birth BLPs – 23,281, of which 11,754 female – 50.5%
          • 2000s birth BLPs – 2,850, of which 1,539 female – 54.0%


          Showcase

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          WiR is amazing and has way too much to showcase here.

          Recent Did You Know? blurbs

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          These are the 20 most recent WP:DYK entries for WiR. Updated approximately weekly by User:JL-Bot.

          • ... that Quechua trade unionist Cornelia Flores (pictured) went from farming to helping to draft the Bolivian constitution? (2026-09-04)
          • ... that a woman was killed in Ghana in 2020 after she was accused of being a witch? (2026-09-03)
          • ... that future actress Emily Flain supplied a shortlisted name for a new housing development in Northern Ireland while she was in primary school? (2026-09-03)
          • ... that Mitsue Yamazaki named an anime television series she co-created after a term that "makes people in the industry shudder"? (2026-09-02)
          • ... that composer Marta Canales donated the manuscript of one of her pieces to a Carmelite monastery? (2026-09-02)
          • ... that Inori's debut novel received a publication offer when she had almost forgotten about it? (2026-09-02)
          • ... that a ridge on the Kerguelen Islands is named after Élisabeth Jérémine (pictured), a Russian-French geologist who analysed rocks from the islands? (2026-09-01)
          • ... that 96-year-old social-media influencer Lillian Droniak's proposed rules for her funeral include a requirement to get drunk? (2026-09-01)
          • ... that Elaine Larsen, a champion drag racer, was raised in a Mennonite family that strongly limited the use of technology? (2026-09-01)
          • ... that Choi Soon-hwa received the Best Dressed award at Miss Universe Korea at the age of 81? (2026-08-31)
          • ... that Charlotte Bryant begged King Edward VIII, "don't let them kill me on Wednesday"? (2026-08-31)
          • ... that Moroccan-Israeli singer Raymonde Abecassis's stage name, "El Bidaouia" ('The Casablancan'), reflects the city in which she was born? (2026-08-30)
          • ... that Judith Chernaik had to reassure Philip Larkin that Poems on the Underground would not be too left-wing? (2026-08-30)
          • ... that, when she was a child, composer Berta Bock wished that she were a boy so she could have more educational opportunities? (2026-08-30)
          • ... that Beatrice Mateyo (pictured) was arrested for demeaning Malawian women after carrying a placard saying that she was proud to have a vagina? (2026-08-30)
          • ... that Lea VanderVelde had co-nominated the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner nine times before he won? (2026-08-29)
          • ... that as a university student and manga assistant, Kuzushiro said she sometimes stayed overnight at her workplace while helping produce a weekly series? (2026-08-29)
          • ... that composer Júlia Hajdú once stated that her greatest source of pride was when other composers "stole" her work? (2026-08-28)
          • ... that actress Scarlett Archer lived near the set of a soap opera years before acting in one? (2026-08-27)
          • ... that Phindu Zaie Banda (pictured) has been featured in both a bank advertisement and a protest against gender-based violence with the American ambassador to Malawi?|Phindu zaie Banda (sq cropped).jpg (2026-08-27)

          Transcluding 20 of 3252 total

          Press

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          There has been considerable press coverage of WiR, to the point where the project has its own Wikipedia article. Below are some recent articles. To add articles to the list, visit Press.

          Academia

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          In addition to listings under Research, academic papers on gender bias in Wikipedia (as recorded in Wikidata) are listed in Scholia.

          To include a paper, create an item about it on Wikidata (check first to avoid duplicates) and give it main subject (P921) = gender bias on Wikipedia (Q17002416).

          References

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          1. ↑ Graells-Garrido, Eduardo; Lalmas, Mounia; Menczer, Filippo (2015). "First Women, Second Sex: Gender Bias in Wikipedia". Proceedings of the 26th ACM Conference on Hypertext & Social Media - HT '15: 165–174. arXiv:1502.02341. doi:10.1145/2700171.2791036. S2CID 1082360.
          2. ↑ "Qlever".
          3. ↑ "Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Women in Red • en.wikipedia.org". XTools.
          [edit]
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