Help Women in Religion & Theology Gain Recognition

Atla’s first 1,000 Women in Religion Wikipedia Edit-a-thon will be held during Atla Annual in Vancouver on Wednesday, June 12, 2019. This free hands-on workshop will enable attendees to become confident Wikipedia editors with the ability to add, edit, and enhance entries about important women in the field.

What is 1,000 Women in Religion?

The 1,000 Women in Religion Project is a timely endeavor that seeks to add over 1,000 biographical entries about religious, spiritual, and wisdom women to Wikipedia, the largest encyclopedia in the world. The contributions of women in all fields of work, scholarship and life, including religion and spirituality, have gone under-recognized, across time and in our present-day context. Furthermore, this under-recognition, which is a form of gender bias, is reflected and reproduced in our commonly used sources of knowledge – in our history books, in our news media, even in our sacred texts.

In today’s world, when these sources of knowledge are available with a simple click on our mobile devices, we are formed by these gender biases in knowledge production, 24-7. Elizabeth Ursic, co-chair of the Women’s Caucus of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature said, “The more we can document and highlight the contributions of women leaders in their religious and spiritual traditions, the more we can change the perception that women have not been leaders”.

Why Wikipedia?

Wikipedia is a source of knowledge with a worldwide reach that illustrates this inherent, structural, gender bias. In November 2014 only about 15% of the biographies in English Wikipedia were about women. The Wikipedia project “Women in Red”, started in 2015, seeks to increase the representation of women across all disciplines and walks of life on the Wikipedia platform. Some progress has been made already. As of May 6, 2019, 17.82% of biographies were about women (Wikipedia: WikiProject Women in Red).

However, this is not Wikipedia’s only systemic problem. Only 9% of its editors are women (Wikipedia, Gender Bias on Wikipedia). The 1,000 Women in Religion Project seeks to address both systemic issues by increasing the number of contributions about religious, spiritual and wisdom women on Wikipedia as well as the number of women editors.

This type of practical, hands-on effort is needed to reform and transform the sources of knowledge the recreate gender bias and inequality in our religious, spiritual and wisdom traditions and thus in daily lives.

How to Participate

Become an editor! You can do this at the Wikipedia Edit-a-thon Workshop at Atla Annual in Vancouver on June 12, 2019. At these edit-a-thons, we improve entries about women that need editing for writing style and grammar, for content and for accuracy. We also teach people how to write new biographical entries. We welcome all people regardless of gender identification but keep in mind that every woman we train helps address gender bias on Wikipedia where only 9% of the editors are women.

Suggest a woman (historical and contemporary) for our 1,000 Women in Religion list! The heart of the Project is the list, composed of 1,000 + women who are notable as founders, practitioners, teachers, resistors, and researchers of the world’s religious and wisdom traditions – women who should be on Wikipedia but are not. Atla assisted with the creation of this list by data mining the Atla Religion Database to determine the most frequently cited women.

Join us on June 12 in Vancouver at this free workshop and make a difference by ensuring that the contributions of women are recognized in the field of religion and theology.

How to Register at Atla Annual

To register for this event, you will need to first create an account on the My Atla Web Portal. After creating the account, you will be able to register for the event and select the 1,000 Women in Religion — A Wikipedia Edit-a- thon. We encourage you to sign up for any other sessions you’re interested in for a fee or register for the whole conference!

If you have already registered for the conference simply log into the My Atla Web Portal, select My Events and then Edit. You will be able to add any additional sessions.

1,000 Women in Religion is a major initiative of the Women’s Caucus of the American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature, supported by Atla and the Women’s Task Force of the Parliament of World Religions. For more information, contact the Women’s Caucus at aar.sbl.womens.caucus@gmail.com or check out their webpage at http://womenscaucusaar.wixsite.com/womenscaucusaarsbl.