Women and Health Project: Improving the representation of women’s health on Wikipedia 

The Women and Health project is an initiative organised between Wikimedia Spain, Amical Wikimedia, Wikimujeres and RedCaps (Centro de Análisis y Programas Sanitarios), which joins the WikiProject Women’s Health with the purpose of identifying and reducing the knowledge gaps about women’s health in Wikipedia, mainly in Spanish, Catalan, Galician and Basque. 

At Wikimania Singapore 2023, Florencia Claes, former president of Wikimedia Spain learned about the WikiProject Women’s Health, who saw a great opportunity to expand it, adapting it and improving the representation of women’s health in Wikipedia. Her vision was: to create a space where women’s health issues would be addressed with the depth, accuracy and accessibility they deserve, in Spanish and other languages of Spain.   

Importance of women’s health in Wikipedia 

Women’s health has historically been marginalised or distorted in many media outlets, including Wikipedia. Often, articles on women’s health are incomplete, biased or simply do not exist. This limits access to accurate, evidence-based information for millions of people who rely on Wikipedia as a reliable source of knowledge. 

The Women and Health project was born out of precisely this need: to correct these deficiencies through collaborative editing, integrating reliable and up-to-date sources to ensure that medical knowledge about women’s health is accessible, equitable and of quality. 

Collaboration with health professionals: the first step 

Collaboration with the RedCAPS association, which brings together women’s health specialists in Spain, proved key to consolidating the project. This effort culminated in a meeting held from 13 to 15 September 2024, where doctors, nurses, midwives, psychologists and pharmacists participated in an intensive editing workshop. 

In this workshop, the contents on women’s health in English Wikipedia were analysed and the criteria for adapting them to Spanish Wikipedia were defined, as well as a timetable for their implementation in other languages, such as Catalan, Galician and Basque. In this way, and with the help of Netha Hussain on the technical side, we started the Women and Health Wikiproject with an edit-a-thon on 29 March. 

Overcoming the challenges: analysis and correction of biases 

One of the major challenges of this project is to analyse and correct the biases present in the existing articles. In reviewing the content, several problems were identified:  

1. Lack of reliable sources: Many articles on women’s health are based on outdated studies or sources that do not reflect the diversity of women’s experiences.  

2. Androcentric perspective: Some articles are written from a perspective that focuses on the male body as the norm, minimising key differences in women’s health. 

3. Unbalanced coverage: Topics such as menopause or pregnancy have less information than other areas of health.  

4. Linguistic diversity: Gaps in knowledge about women’s health in other languages such as Catalan, Galician and Basque are also a challenge we seek to address. 

Contributing to more equitable and accurate representation 

The Women and Health project seeks to transform the representation of women’s health on Wikipedia through various strategies:  

• Article creation and improvement: We edit and revise articles based on up-to-date and reliable medical sources. 

• Interdisciplinary collaboration: We work closely with health professionals to ensure accuracy of content. 

• Training of editors: We organise workshops and editing marathons to train more people in creating gender-sensitive women’s health articles. 

• Promoting linguistic diversity: We translate and adapt content into multiple languages to ensure that information is accessible globally. 

Health professionals and Wikipedians: an effective model 

Collaboration between health professionals and Wikipedia editors enhances the reliability of articles. While the specialised knowledge of health experts ensures that content is backed by up-to-date scientific evidence, Wikipedia editors ensure that the encyclopaedia’s standards, such as verifiability, neutrality and accessibility of content, are applied. By bringing these two approaches together, we achieve:  

• More accurate and reliable articles. 

• Reduced risk of misinformation. 

• Better structure and accessibility of content for a general audience.  

• Increased credibility of Wikipedia as a reliable source of medical information. 

Topics such as menstruation, pregnancy and menopause on Wikipedia 

These issues are central to the lives of millions of women around the world. However, they have been historically invisibilised or distorted in traditional sources. Adequate representation in Wikipedia is crucial to: 

• Combating myths and stigmas associated with women’s health.  

• Facilitate access to reliable and up-to-date scientific information.  

• Closing knowledge gaps on issues that affect half of the world’s population. 

The importance of editing events 

Editing events, such as edit-a-thons, are critical to the growth of Wikipedia’s women’s health-focused editing community. These events encourage participation, strengthening the collaborative network of practitioners and activists.  

They are also key to making important issues visible in digital and academic spaces and ensuring the continuity of the project. 

A replicable model for other knowledge gaps 

This model of multidisciplinary collaboration between health experts and Wikipedians is not only valuable in addressing women’s health but may be replicable in other fields with knowledge gaps in Wikipedia. Examples include: 

• Health of vulnerable populations, such as rare diseases, mental health or indigenous medicine. 

• History and biographies of women and other minorities. 

• Gender-sensitive science and technology. 

• Impact of climate change on public health.  

This model can be adapted and extended to other areas, always with the same methodology: collaboration between subject matter experts and Wikipedia editors to close knowledge gaps. 

A step towards a more equitable and inclusive Wikipedia 

The Women and Health project is a key step towards a more inclusive and equitable Wikipedia. Through the collaboration, collective effort and time invested by women in editing Wikipedia, we are building more diverse and accessible knowledge.  

As this year’s March campaign, ‘Tiempo feminista: tiempo para editar Wikipedia’, pointed out, every edit, every new article, every added reference contributes to this collective effort for a more open and fairer Wikipedia for all.