"WikiWomen in science: creating visibility, sharing stories" - A review

To mark the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, the Unit Diversity Management organized the two-part workshop "WikiWomen in Science: Creating Visibility, Sharing Stories" in cooperation with the Women@DDc network

The aim of the workshop was to highlight the contributions of female scientists at TU Dresden to science, history and society. Last month, under the expert guidance of long-time Wikipedian Steffi Eckold, the first contributions were successfully published on Wikipedia.

Now, for example, the first female professor at TU Dresden, Erika Bordag-Wettengel, has her own article. Further articles have been written for former professors Bärbel Bergmann, Birgit Benkhoff and Erika Horn, among others.

Not only were articles written as part of this project, but an awareness of how Wikipedia works and its importance was also created, as Steffi Eckold emphasizes once again:

"It is important to know the background of Wikipedia in order to be able to assess how an article was created and therefore its reliability. Many people are not aware of the basis on which articles can be created, what rules there are and why they are not included in Wikipedia. The fact that female authors write fewer Wikipedia articles has a direct impact on the article inventory, as the articles reflect the interests of the authors."

We are pleased to see how the work of the participants has helped to increase the visibility of female scientists and thus position them as further role models for future generations.