About

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 other gender minorities 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!

Where the work is done

Wikimedia Commons

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. Over 10,000 new images were added in 2022.

Announcements

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.

• New page started for Lydia Sandgren, Swedish author. Most welcome to add!Thegivingtreeismyfavorite (talk) 13:18, 11 March 2026 (UTC)
• Women Do News: We are focusing on bios of Black women journalists for African American History Month, including updating the List of African American journalists page.--Ejgertz (talk) 17:52, 2 February 2026 (UTC)
• 8 March 24-hour online conference with info on women photographers who should be covered by Wikipedia Roundtheworld (talk) 16:26, 27 January 2026 (UTC)
• New redlists: Bram Stoker Award, Shirley Jackson Award, A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country

Events

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

Lists of red links

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

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).

See Wikipedia:WikiProject Deletion sorting/Women for articles about women that are nominated for deletion.

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.

Did you know

• 15 May 2026 – Livia Accarigi (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by RabidTuberculosis (t · c); see discussion
• 15 May 2026 – Teresa Gnoli (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by RabidTuberculosis (t · c); see discussion
• 14 May 2026 – Barbara Viera (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by BeanieFan11 (t · c); see discussion
• 14 May 2026 – Nellie Breen (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by 4meter4 (t · c); see discussion
• 13 May 2026 – Qojin (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by Jolielover (t · c); see discussion
• 11 May 2026 – Maria Afonso (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by Jolielover (t · c); see discussion
• 10 May 2026 – Helen Shores Lee (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by CaptainAngus (t · c); see discussion
• 09 May 2026 – Tulasi Srinivas (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by Miraclepine (t · c); see discussion
• 07 May 2026 – Maria Olenina-d'Alheim (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by RabidTuberculosis (t · c); see discussion
• 06 May 2026 – Camila Ashland (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by 4meter4 (t · c); see discussion

(12 more...)

Articles for deletion

• 14 May 2026 – Niki Lego (talk · edit · hist) was AfDed by JMWt (t · c); see discussion (6 participants)
• 13 May 2026 – Marguerite Wapler (talk · edit · hist) was AfDed by Aristoxène (t · c); see discussion (3 participants)
• 13 May 2026 – Annette Soubrier (talk · edit · hist) was AfDed by Aristoxène (t · c); see discussion (3 participants)
• 13 May 2026 – Victorina Trucano (talk · edit · hist) was AfDed by Aristoxène (t · c); see discussion (4 participants)
• 13 May 2026 – Anthropometric File of Anarchists (talk · edit · hist) was AfDed by Aristoxène (t · c); see discussion (3 participants)
• 13 May 2026 – Ernesta Forti (talk · edit · hist) was AfDed by Aristoxène (t · c); see discussion (3 participants)
• 13 May 2026 – Demonstration of 9 March 1883 (talk · edit · hist) was AfDed by Aristoxène (t · c); see discussion (1 participant)
• 13 May 2026 – Léontine Borreman (talk · edit · hist) was AfDed by Aristoxène (t · c); see discussion (3 participants)
• 13 May 2026 – First period of the Lyon anarchist press (talk · edit · hist) was AfDed by Aristoxène (t · c); see discussion (1 participant)
• 13 May 2026 – Eva Schiroky (talk · edit · hist) was AfDed by Aristoxène (t · c); see discussion (2 participants)

(12 more...)

Files for discussion

• 05 Apr 2026 – File:Gianna Bryant.jpg (talk · edit · hist) (on Gianna Bryant) was FfDed by Whpq (t · c); see discussion

Good article nominees

• 13 May 2026 – Livia Accarigi (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by RabidTuberculosis (t · c); start discussion
• 12 May 2026 – Catherine Branson (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by Pangalau (t · c); start discussion
• 12 May 2026 – Roma Mitchell (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by Pangalau (t · c); start discussion
• 06 May 2026 – Chieko Hara (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by RabidTuberculosis (t · c); start discussion
• 06 May 2026 – Maria Olenina-d'Alheim (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by RabidTuberculosis (t · c); start discussion
• 02 May 2026 – Élisabeth Le Bas (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by Chao Garden (t · c); start discussion
• 28 Apr 2026 – Caroline Jones (fundraiser) (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by JuniperChill (t · c); start discussion
• 07 Apr 2026 – Tendai Rinomhota (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by DaniloDaysOfOurLives (t · c); start discussion
• 05 Apr 2026 – Scarlett Archer (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by DaniloDaysOfOurLives (t · c); start discussion
• 24 Mar 2026 – Rhoda Roberts (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by Laterthanyouthink (t · c); start discussion

(12 more...)

Requested moves

• 14 May 2026 – List of female violinists (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to List of women violinists by Mike Selinker (t · c); see discussion
• 14 May 2026 – List of female classical conductors (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to List of women classical conductors by Mike Selinker (t · c); see discussion
• 14 May 2026 – List of female scientists in the 21st century (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to List of women scientists in the 21st century by Mike Selinker (t · c); see discussion
• 14 May 2026 – List of female fellows of the Royal Society (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to List of women fellows of the Royal Society by Mike Selinker (t · c); see discussion
• 10 May 2026 – List of female foreign ministers (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to List of women foreign ministers by Mike Selinker (t · c); see discussion
• 10 May 2026 – List of elected or appointed female heads of state or government (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to List of elected or appointed women heads of state or government by Mike Selinker (t · c); see discussion
• 09 May 2026 – Suicide of Sophia (talk · edit · hist) is requested to be moved to The Medically Assisted Death of Sophia/Ruth Woitowitz by Sunni24 (t · c); see discussion
• 04 May 2026 – Tlalli (talk · edit · hist) move request to Tlali by Tbhotch (t · c) was moved to Tlali (talk · edit · hist) by Jeffrey34555 (t · c) on 14 May 2026; see discussion

Articles for creation

• 15 May 2026 – Draft:Carol Byrne Jones (talk · edit · hist) has been submitted for AfC by Kimbarrett92 (t · c)
• 14 May 2026 – Draft:Khaité Sall (talk · edit · hist) has been submitted for AfC by Scooglers (t · c)
• 13 May 2026 – Draft:Euphrosyne Aue (talk · edit · hist) has been submitted for AfC by Samkenn2 (t · c)
• 10 May 2026 – Draft:Veronika von Heise-Rotenburg (talk · edit · hist) has been submitted for AfC by RoboWiZZard (t · c)
• 30 Apr 2026 – Draft:Ayse Naz Erkan (talk · edit · hist) has been submitted for AfC by Sddarealone (t · c)
• 29 Apr 2026 – Draft:Vidhya Rangaraju (talk · edit · hist) has been submitted for AfC by Fabianb85 (t · c)
• 14 Apr 2026 – Draft:Mikky Keetels (talk · edit · hist) has been submitted for AfC by Qwerfjkl (bot) (t · c)
• 06 Apr 2026 – Draft:Ning-tsu Malmqvist (talk · edit · hist) has been submitted for AfC by Florenceytse (t · c)
• 02 Apr 2026 – Draft:Martina Tomaselli (talk · edit · hist) has been submitted for AfC by Cookieresponsibilty (t · c)
• 05 Mar 2026 – Draft:Irene Choi (talk · edit · hist) has been submitted for AfC by Trotsk6 (t · c)

(10 more...)

Declined drafts

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

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

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

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 but you are encouraged to add these to the list manually.

The graph shows the number of articles created each month. The apparent decrease for the current month reflects the number of articles created up to today's date. Only data on completed months indicate overall progress.

For personal metrics on how many articles you've created about women, see this tool.

Wikidata

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

Totals at a glance

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

Summary of Women in Red statistics from main page

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)

Further background on metrics

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%

This graph was using the legacy Graph extension, which is no longer supported. It needs to be converted to the new Chart extension.

Showcase

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

Press

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.

• Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon aims to reverse erasure of female, racialized artists by Jack Rabb, City News (Vancouver), 8 March 2025
• UC Berkeley students add more than 300,000 Wikipedia edits documenting LGBTQ+ history by Madeleine Kashkooli, The Daily California, 7 February 2026
• The surprising way a professor & her students are preserving centuries of LGBTQ+ history by Molly Sprayregen, LGBTQ Nation, 5 February 2026
• Where Are All the Women? Notability and Digital Discovery by Diana Turnbow, Smithsonian magazine, 13 January 2026
• Wikipedia donations go toward paying liberal activists to rewrite articles by Robert Schmad, Washington Examiner, 14 November 2025 (refers to Art+Feminism)
• Meet the Physicist Who Wrote Over 2,000 Wikipedia Biographies for Women in STEM by Eva Baron, My Modern Met, 6 October 2025
• Correcting history, one edit at a time: DrThneed was interviewed on Jesse Mulligan's Radio New Zealand Afternoons programme, 7 March 2025
• On IWD, Wikimedia Foundation celebrates contributors closing gender gaps on Wikipedia by Tope Templer Olaiya, The Guardian. 5 March 2025
• Redressing the gender imbalance on Wikipedia by John Lewis, Otago Daily Times, 28 Jan 2025
• Wikipedia Donations Go Toward Embedding Feminism And Racial Justice In World’s Largest Encyclopedia, by Robert Schmad, Daily Caller (not considered reliable), 23 September 2024
• Niagara resident named Wikimedian of the Year, by Richard Hutton, Thorold Today, 19 August 2024
• "This Researcher Is on a Crusade to Correct Wikipedia’s Gender Imbalance", by Katie Hafner and Sophie McNulty, Scientific American, 30 July 2024
• "Less than 20 per cent of Wikipedia bios are on women. These Wikipedians want to change that.", by Olivia Cleal, Women's Agenda, 30 July 2024
• "‘Women in Red’: PennWest prof helps close gender gap in Wikipedia entries", by Paul Paterra, Observer-Reporter, 8 July 2024
• "This Canadian Non-Profit Is Helping To Fix Wikipedia’s Diversity Gap", by Maureen Halushak, Chatelaine, 17 June 2024
• "Wikipedia is also affected by the gender gap", Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, 3 May 2024
• " Georgetown hosts Wikipedia edit-a-thon, harnessing anger into action", by Julia Vasilj, The Georgetown Voice, 14 April 2024
• "Wikipedia Needs More Women: Bridging The Gender Gap In Knowledge Representation", Africa.com, 5 April 2024
• "Wikimedia Foundation launches ‘Wikipedia Needs More Women’ campaign" by Josephine Agbonkhese, Vanguard, 8 March 2024
• "On International Women’s Day, Wikimedia Foundation celebrates efforts in Africa to improve gender equity on Wikipedia", The Sun, 8 March 2024
• "Int'l Women's Day: Wikimedia launches 'Wikipedia needs more women' campaign", Business Standard, 8 March 2024
• "Wikipedia needs more women. And India can help bridge this gender gap" by Anusha Alikhan, The Print, 8 March 2024
• "The Guardian view on Wikipedia’s female volunteers: a hive heroism that changes history", editorial, The Guardian, 8 March 2024, also in connection with Lucy Moore
• "UK academic’s Wikipedia project raises profile of women around the world", by Robyn Vinter on Wikipedian Lucy Moore, The Guardian, 5 March 2024
• "Review highlights gender gap on Wikipedia", by University of Barcelona, Phys.org, 5 March 2024
• "What a Wikipedia page can do for women in STEM", by Olivia Clear, womensagenda.com.au, 11 October 2023
• "‘Why are they not on Wikipedia?’: Dr Jess Wade’s mission for recognition for unsung scientists", by Donna Ferguson, The Observer, 1 October 2023
• "Some Things I Like About the Expanding Wikipedia Universe", by Hilda Bastian, Absolutely Maybe (PLOS) blog, 2 August 2023
• "Bestselling author Kate Mosse urges budding historians and writers to add more biographies of women to Wikipedia", by Fiona Parker, Daily Mail, 3 July 2023
• "The British physicist making women scientists visible online", article about Jess Wade by Anna Cuenca, Phys Org, 20 April 2023
• "Social Scientists Can’t Ignore the Power of Wikipedia—or Its Systemic Biases", by Mariah John-Leighton and Hannah Jane Pearson, London School of Economics and Political Science, 6 April 2023
• "Wheres Russo?" Sky Sports profile Lewes FC including Women in Red Barnstar winner James Boyes 31 March 2023
• "Closing Wikipedia’s Gender Gap, One Edit at a Time", by Sara Norberg, Tufts Now, 27 March 2023
• Nature asks 6 to comment on their plans for International Women's Day including Jess Wade.
• "Majority of Wikipedia editors are still men - so how is the online encyclopaedia addressing the issue?", Evening Standard, 8 March 2023.
• "Lewes FC is delighted that our own volunteer club photographer James Boyes has received a ‘Barnstar’ award from Women in Red, and is indeed the only person to receive one in 2022."

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to WikiProject Women in Red.

• Interest in women's history began much earlier than is assumed, Phys Org, August 25, 2015

This is a WikiProject, an open group of Wikipedia editors. New participants are welcome; feel free to talk to us! Guide to WikiProjects Directory of WikiProjects