CARE International launch campaign to #ChangeTheStory on women’s representation ahead of upcoming Euros

CARE International UK

05 July 2022

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  • Ahead of the Women’s Euros, CARE International has partnered with Wikimedia UK and Women in Red to launch campaign ‘#ChangeTheStory’ and increase the number of women represented on Wikipedia
  • There are currently more Wikipedia entries about football and footballers than there are about women in their entirety and of Wikipedia pages on football players, only 6.5% are of female players. 

CARE International UK, a leading humanitarian charity with a focus on women and girls, is partnering with Wikimedia UK and Women In Red ahead of the Women’s Euros to #ChangeTheStory on women’s representation.   The #ChangeTheStory campaign will focus on the unequal representation of women in different areas of society, elevating women’s voices and celebrating women’s accomplishments.   

During the Women’s Euros, Wikipedia pages will feature a #ChangeTheStory banner, urging readers to join the conversation on social media. Sports stars are lending their platforms to highlight the issue. 

Wikipedia, one of the most visited website in the world with around 22 billion views a month, is a microcosm which reflects a wider societal problem: too often, women’s achievements are not given the same credit or recognition as those of men.   

As the largest free online encyclopaedia, Wikipedia has an enormous influence over society’s understanding of history, cultures and individual achievements. Yet of the 1.9 million biographies on English Wikipedia of notable individuals, from authors to scientists, celebrities and academics, politicians and sportspeople, a mere 19.26% are about women. Of association football players, only 6.5% of profiles are female players. In fact, there are actually more articles about football on Wikipedia than articles about women.  

Lucy Crompton-Reid, Chief Executive of Wikimedia UK: 

"As the national charity for the Wikimedia movement, Wikimedia UK is working hard to ensure that Wikipedia reflects our diverse society. The gender gap has been a key focus of our work for many years, and half of our community leaders are women. However, there is still much to do. We are delighted to be part of #ChangeTheStory as we know that when we change the story about women, we change the story for women." 

Helen Pankhurst, CARE’s senior advisor on gender equality, said:  

“Gender equality is at the heart of CARE’s work. Women and girls are disproportionately impacted by humanitarian emergencies and poverty, yet they are central to solutions. Women who are on the front lines must be equally represented at the decision-making tables at home, in their community and at national and global level.   

“Women in all their diversity must be equally valued if they are to be equally represented – this is the fundamental thread that runs through CARE’s work as well as through every society more widely. Whether she is tackling the impacts of the climate crisis in her community, helping her family survive the aftermath of war, representing her country at sport or running for election. Women’s visibility matters, everywhere and at every level.”  

As the women’s Euros kick off, the first area of focus for #ChangeTheStory is the recognition and celebration of women’s sporting achievements. It’s time to #ChangeTheStory.  

Roger Bamkin, co-founder of Women In Red, said:   

“The ‘content gender gap’ is a form of systemic bias and when we started the percentage of women was about 15%. Over 250 editathons have helped Women In Red address this in a positive way over seven years. We’re encouraging people to join the #ChangeTheStory conversation on social media and join 100s editors of all genders living around the world focused on reducing systemic bias in the wiki movement. Our grandchildren deserve to see a more balanced world and we want to put even more spectacular women into the picture." 

GET INVOLVED  
Find out more about the campaign here.  
Like and share our #ChangeTheStory posts and use the #ChangeTheStory hashtag on your social.    
Learn more about Women In Red and sign up as a Wikipedia editor to help “write the wrongs” on gender representation on Wikipedia.  

To set up interviews and send media queries please contact:    
David Moore, Press Officer, CARE International moore@careinternational.org

Spokespeople available:  
Helen Pankhurst, British women's rights activist, scholar, writer and CARE International's senior gender adviser  
Lucy Crompton-Reid, Chief Executive of Wikimedia UK 

Statistics  

a graph showing male vs female percentage of profiles by sport

CARE International works in 100 countries to save lives, defeat poverty and achieve social justice. We put women and girls at the heart of our work because we know that we cannot overcome poverty until all people have equal rights and opportunities.   

Wikimedia UK demystifies and drives engagement in open knowledge, as the national charity for Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects. Wikimedia UK is committed to developing projects that help to address the gender gap; promoting and advocating for the involvement of women and other underrepresented groups on Wikimedia. Wikimedia UK is working to close the editor gender gap and has increased our lead volunteers from 21% in 2015 to 53% in 2021.  

Women in Red is a volunteer organisation within Wikipedia whose aim is to reduce the “gender gap”: the disproportionate number of biographies in the online encyclopedia about men. When the group was formed, 85% of Wikipedia biographies were about men. Since then the community has created over 170,000 new articles about women, at a rate of about 70 a day. The percentage of men is now less than 81%. Women on Red has sister organisations who work in parallel on Wikipedias in over 30 other languages.