Who we are - Women Do News

The Women Do News project grew out of a 2019 cohort of journalists participating in Take The Lead, a leadership training program co-founded by Gloria Feldt. It has since evolved to partner with other allies at universities and journalism groups to identify worthy women journalists for biographies, train editors, and add Wikipedia entries to even the playing field on this important platform. We are now part of a nonprofit, Bay City News Foundation, to support this work.

Among entries, the Women Do News network has added so far women who are pioneers for Asian Americans (like Lori Matsukawa), who covered high-profile trials for 50 years (like Linda Deutsch), and who were the first women editors in their newsrooms (like Betsy Wade). They have won Emmys and Murrows (like Tonya Mosley) and Pulitzers (like Lisa Song) — but unlike men with similar credentials, they couldn’t get that coveted prize of a Wikipedia page! That’s where we come in as volunteers and trainers and organizers.

We write and edit entries to add to Wikipedia.
We identify women who deserve more recognition and work to get citations to build their profiles so they can get well-cited entries on Wikipedia.
We hold Edit-a-Thons and workshops to build the roster, edit entries, and teach others how to contribute to the work.

Why does it matter?

Women journalists are underrepresented on Wikipedia, one of the most-visited English-language websites in the world. This leads to issues related to safety, credibility, recognition, and income. Women Do News is dedicated to elevating the voices and profiles of women journalists online. We are made up of a working board, all volunteers, one project manager who helps keep us moving forward, and most importantly all the people who sign up to participate! Help us if you can.