Education/Newsletter/March 2015/Wikimedia Argentina reinforces gender diversity on Wikipedia with several women targeted events
By Melina Masnatta (WM AR) - Samir Elsharbaty (WMF)
Snippet: Wikimedia Argentina celebrates WikiWomen history month and International Women day with several events targeted to increase gender diversity.
This month, IIEP UNESCO and Wikimedia Argentina organized several activities reinforcing gender diversity on Wikipedia believing that such events are not only held to commemorate the day. Various research activities are being done at IIEP-Unesco Buenos Aires. They provide information and analysis of important aspects of the educational system in Latin America. The output of these studies helps with educational policy planning and implementation processes in line with current social, political and cultural changes. Wikimedia Argentina is also collaborating with the ITC educational research area aiming at studying the gender and digital gap. The goal of these studies is to find the challenges of strategic factors in the educational system and how to replace them with good practices for students such as editing Wikipedia.
The first activity was a breakfast meeting between leaders, educators, and politicians from different places to discuss the results of the recent research on the use of technology and its effect on women and young girls, including their decisions concerning careers they do after graduation from their school. The second activity in this series was an editathon attended mostly by women of different ages. Many of the participants did not have any idea about the basics of Wikipedia, i.e. how to edit, what are the rules, etc. This helped creating a collaborative spirit between users to share knowledge. Unfortunately, IIEP Unesco Buenos Aires limits the attendance of each of their events to less than 50 participants for safety reasons. The Argentinian chapter is now planning a new event in that same series targeting gender gap, but this time it will be an online event; a webinar on "digital rights from a gender perspective". Nearly, 1000 people have registered to attend the webinar until now which is indicating great results. Also, this month Wikimedia Argentina was present at the launch of the national chapter of girls in tech. Melina Masnatta is a member of the board of girls in tech Argentina. At the event, Melina spoke about Wikipedia Education Program role in empowering women to express their voice by editing Wikipedia.
The education events targeting the gender gap on Wikipedia in Argentina are of high priority and many more events are planned to be held soon.
Read more about the Wikipedia Education Program in Argentina here.