Sweden’s Foreign Ministry and Wikimedia will on March 8 take joint global action to help make the internet more gender equal.

Edit-a-thons, aimed at increasing the number of women on Wikipedia, will be organized in parallel in some 50 countries.

Foreign Minister Margot Wallström will host #WikiGapSthlm at KTH Royal Institute of Technology.

Wikipedia is the world’s largest online and user-generated encyclopedia. Its content influences and colors users’ knowledge about the world. But there is great imbalance on the website. Ninety per cent of the content is created by men, and there are four times more articles about men than there are about women.

To contribute to a more accurate picture, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Wikimedia have taken the initiative for the #WikiGap event.

On 8 March – International Women’s Day – parallel events will be organized in more than 50 countries, from Sweden to Indonesia, Egypt and Colombia, together with local actors and partners.

“Sweden is the first country in the world with a feminist foreign policy. It emanates from a moral conviction based on justice and human rights, and because gender equality is also a basic condition for peace, security and sustainable development,” says Margot Wallström.

Sweden’s feminist foreign policy is based on the ambition to strengthen women’s and girls’ rights, representation and resources.

The #WikiGap initiative is part of this policy and aims to improve the representation of women on Wikipedia. During the day-long event, the invited participants will write and edit articles on Wikipedia using information on women profiles, experts and role models in different fields.

In Stockholm, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs is collaborating with Wikimedia Sverige and KTH Royal Institute of Technology. The theme is women in technology and science.The theme was determined by the organisers, but the texts produced will be the work of the participants themselves

The ministry and Sweden’s embassies will co-host #WikiGap with Wikimedia. WikiGap aims to provide a platform for volunteers who want to contribute to a more gender-equal internet.

During the event, the articles will not be written or edited by the missions abroad or the ministry; instead, this will be done by the those taking part in the edit-a-thons.

Swedish Government