Women4Wikipedia began when Rosie Williams, a mother from Canberra, Australia heard via Twitter that less than 13% of contributors to Wikipedia are women.
Rosie runs Collective Action a political/ethical events database for Australians. She decided to use this for its intended purpose and kick off a campaign to get more women contributing to Wikipedia. Rosie herself contributed an article to Wikipedia back in 2009 and found it a simple and positive experience and wanted more women to share this opportunity.
Through launching her own campaign, Rosie found out that Sue Gardner, Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation had begun the Wikipedia Gendergap Mailing list. In a couple of weeks Rosie had gone from being a one time editor of Wikipedia to chatting with Sue Gardner! It is this kind of networking that is the point of Women4Wikipedia: to show women what they can do when they take the chance.
Women4Wikipedia provides opportunities for women to connect virtually and in real life to provide support to one another in editing Wikipedia whether they are novices or experienced Wikipedians.
Women4Wikipedia appreciates that the more involved people get with Wikipedia, the more likely they are to get caught up in an edit war and it is those times when Women4Wikipedia can really be helpful in providing a network of support to help people through these hurdles.
If you'd like to join up with Women4Wikipedia go to http://women4wikipedia.net and click on the link to the forum or write a blog post or article on the topic. There's plenty to discuss!
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