As part of the International Women’s Day celebration, Women’s History Museum of Zambia and the Embassy of Sweden in Lusaka, in cooperation with Wikipedia and BongoHive, have joined the global #WikiGap campaign which aims to improve the representation of articles by and about women on Wikipedia. The initiative’s goal is to highlight women profiles, experts and role models in Zambia, and help to make the internet more gender-equal.
On 7th March, the Women’s History Museum and the Embassy of Sweden joined the global #WikiGap initiative by aligning the articles in Zambia to the campaign, and a breakfast was hosted by the Embassy of Sweden to celebrate the subjects of Wiki Women project in Zambia as part of highlighting International Women’s Day. The Wikipedians, members of the media and a number of the women profiled were present. The list of women include Cynthia Zukas, Linda Kasonde and Nsofwa Petronella Sampa.
“I am honoured to have been selected and I feel the weight of generations of histories of women that have never been recorded ”, said Linda Kasonde, President of the Law Association of Zambia and one of the subjects documented.
The Embassy of Sweden in Lusaka has supported the project in line with Sweden’s feminist foreign policy, which is based on the ambition to strengthen women’s and girls’ rights, representation and resources.
On 8th March – International Women’s Day – we will be joined by the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Swedish embassies in the global campaign #WikiGap which aims to improve the representation of articles by and about women on Wikipedia. Parallel events will be organised in more than 40 countries, from Sweden to Vietnam, Egypt and Colombia, together with local actors and partners.
There are four times more articles about men than women on Wikipedia globally, and nine out of ten Wikipedia editors are men. We want to change this and close the internet gender gap. During our #WikiWomen edit-a-thon that took place on 26-28 February in Lusaka, about 40 Zambian writers were trained to become Wikipedia contributors and they have been submitting content on Zambian women for the past one week.
“The lack of gender equality is a universal problem and everyone gains by changing it. Research, our own experience and the experience of others show that gender equality contributes to greater wellbeing and peaceful societies,” said Henrik Cederin, Ambassador of Sweden in Zambia.
The Women’s History Museum is working to forge partnerships with various stakeholders to mainstream and functionalise historical narratives. The Museum will be announcing a list of projects and activities that will be designed as public and private partnerships with various organisations.
Co-founders of the Women’s History Museum Samba Yonga and Mulenga Kapwepwe have been working to create joint collaborations and implement innovative and inclusive ideas that will highlight the important work of documenting history.
