Did you know that less than 20% of biographies on Wikipedia are currently dedicated to notable women, and far lower for other minoritized genders? And that number used to be even lower, only 15% just eight years ago. What has changed? Dedicated efforts by projects like Women in Red are making a difference, increasing the representation of the notable contributions of women and other minoritized genders. But there is still more work to be done!

COGEL is doing its part within the world of linguistics: our third annual Wikipedia Edit-a-thon is a community initiative to improve the gender equity of representation among linguists on Wikipedia. Anyone is welcome to join in, whether you are an experienced Wikipedia editor or have never even thought about editing an article! 

The COGEL-sponsored edit-a-thon will be a virtual event, open for 12 hours on Friday, May 19th, to allow you to participate, no matter which time zone you’ll be joining us from, to work together as part of a virtual community for as much time as you would like to contribute. Experienced Wiki editors will be available during this entire period to answer questions, help troubleshoot, and help new editors get started. Some tips for how to prepare for the edit-a-thon will be sent to you along with the registration confirmation. 

Besides helping to correct systemic biases in the topics and people represented in Wikipedia, here are other reasons to join the edit-a-thon:

• It contributes to a massive project built on the premise of democratizing knowledge and making information easily accessible.
• It helps you get to know more about your field. 
• It gives you practice explaining linguistic ideas to non-specialists. 
• It will win you kudos from the linguistics community. 
• You will have fun sharing this experience with a community of like-minded linguists! 

Register using this link, and we’ll look forward to working alongside you on May 19th!