Q: I love what you are doing! Can you please come speak at my event?

We’re so honored that you care for this work! We love to talk about all the amazing women journalists who should be credited for their tremendous contributions, and the ways we are working toward that goal. Please contact our Events Manager, Jareen Imam and we’ll plan together!

We are ready to speak on panels, host panels, give keynotes or instructional talks. We are also especially seeking partners to host day-long or multi-day edit-a-thons.

(Please be patient and keep in mind that we are volunteers with busy lives. Also, we appreciate stipends, donations and travel reimbursements to help grow our program and support the people who run it.)

Q: You say you’re looking for three independent citations per article. What does that actually mean?

Notability is really important on Wikipedia. When you write an article, can you find at least three reputable sources of information that are independent of the subject, things written ABOUT the journalist rather than BY her? Good sources to use as citations on Wikipedia include books, magazines, newspapers, academic journals, and awards citations. Personal websites, promotional materials, LinkedIn pages, and author bios are not great sources for Wikipedia entries.

Once you start working with Women Do News, you’ll notice that many of the worthy women journalists who have been nominated have not been written about by independent and credible sources. (They haven’t been profiled or their work has not been featured by outlets that aren’t their employers.) One way we can help get more women journalists onto Wikipedia is by encouraging media critics, popular culture writers, and organizations to feature women journalists and talk to them about their careers and work.

Q: There’s an error on Wikipedia! Can you please fix it?

The short answer is not right away. We don’t as an organization correct or create entries on demand. Rather, if you are nominated, we monitor your entry and create a framework for volunteers (who do not know you) to choose from many assignments as they like.

But Wikipedia itself does have a way to ask for corrections. Volunteer Amanda Hickman explains it this way:

The process that you’re supposed to go through if you can’t edit a page due to your own Conflict of Interest is to go to the talk page of the entry in question and make a formal Edit Request.  In many cases that’s enough, especially if it’s a basic factual correction.

Create a login and then use the edit request template to formally request the edit on the Talk page of the entry in question. Expect to check back in on the page every day or so a week after you post the request.

It helps if you can provide documentation or a source for the correct information. You can save the editor who takes your request a ton of work if you follow the citation formats for sources, such as websites, news articles or magazines.

Q: How do I add an image to a Wikipedia article?

Adding photos to entries — whether it’s an entry about you, someone you know or someone whose entry you want to improve, is easy. Here are some simple instructions. Remember, images need to be licensed properly, so they can’t just be what you find on the Internet. They need to be added to Wikimedia with proper permissions or added to a site like Flickr with a Creative Commons license. To get help with this, sign up for the email list and join us in our Slack space.

Q: I have no time to work on Wikipedia, but I want to support you! How?

We totally get it! Even the board has more time some months than others. But we all do what we can. Sometimes that’s time and work, and sometimes it’s a donation. We are raising a modest annual budget to keep our online presence alive and support the planning and execution of edit-a-thons and other programming.

Another way you can support the cause is by telling you friends and others about the new entries we create. Be sure to subscribe to the email list for updates.

Donate to Support Women Do News

Your donation helps Women Do News host edit-a-thon events, develop programming, and conduct training sessions. The work and writing we do on Wikipedia is entirely volunteer-based and complies with Wikipedia’s conflict of interest guidance.

Women Do News is a nonprofit, volunteer-led organization. It is a fiscally sponsored project of Bay City News Foundation, a 501(c)(3) public charity. Donations are tax-deductible via Tax ID # 83-0654488.

Q: Can men join Women Do News?

Yes! In fact, it’s really important that men do join! You can sign up to write or even let us know if you’d like to join the board. After all, gender equity is important for all of us, whether we identify as men, women or nonbinary people. If you’re new to Wikipedia, you can learn how to add entries while learning about the amazing contributions of journalists you might not know about it. If you’re already an editor, you can help strengthen and defend articles about women journalists. Come in whatever capacity you have.