Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2020-03-01/Community view

Community view

The Incredible Invisible Woman

Historian Kathryn Kleiman discovered that women like Jean Bartok and Frances Spence – once considered "refrigerator ladies" – were in fact the first programmers of the ENIAC. (See also: Women in computing.)
Historian Kathryn Kleiman discovered that women like Jean Bartik and Frances Spence – once considered a type of model called "refrigerator ladies" – were in fact the first programmers of the ENIAC.[1] (See also: Women in computing.)

As we're leaving Black History Month and coming into Women's History Month, it's time to consider the incredible invisible woman. That's not a metaphor: women become invisible over time and are even written out of history altogether. Historian, Dr. Bettany Hughes says "We need to actively look for women's stories, and put them back into the historical narrative, there are so many women that should be household names but just aren't."[2] Sometimes, as in the case of an entire group of women programmers, their contributions are just disguised enough to become invisible – hidden in footnotes.[3] It's even more of an issue with black women in history. Just like the late Katherine Johnson, black women literally become "Hidden Figures".[4] Historical accounts may mention black women in history but then focus largely on white women's contributions.[5] In the United States, history curricula standards discuss women at a rate of "approximately 1 woman for every 3 men" and focus largely on white people's roles in history. History classes also tend to reflect women's activism, but ignore the other hats they wore through time.[6] In the United Kingdom, "there is just one statue of a named black woman in the entire country".[7] It was dedicated to Mary Seacole in 2016.[8]

We know women are missing from history as it is usually written. We know that they are actively written out and we know that their work is not taught at the same rates. If they are women of color (WOC) the statistics are even worse.

Portrait of Alice Wiley Seay
Not only was most of the information about suffragist Alice Wiley Seay behind paywalls, but even her public domain image was stored there! Clipping out the photo from Newspapers.com allowed her to become literally visible online to more people.

So if women are being hidden, what are we supposed to do about it? Obviously, we aren't going to have the resources to create full parity between men, women and non-binary people throughout history. But we can make those whom history has left behind more visible. If you find resources in print, research suggests that helping that information get online can make it much more likely to be discovered.[9] Wikipedia itself is a huge source of digital object identifier (DOI) referrals.[10][11] Information stored in archives becomes more visible when added to Wikipedia.[12] In my own experiences, there are many women who are written about in newspapers and journals that are locked behind paywalls. This means their lives and works are effectively hidden from people without access. As editors, if we have access to databases, we are able to make that "invisible" information "visible". Recent examples of women brought to light from resources hiding in databases include civil rights activist Margaret Just Butcher, and pianist Cornelia Lampton.

Some opportunities to shine light on women and non-gender binary people this March include the following awesome projects: Art+Feminism is hosting virtual and physical edithathons around the globe. Women in Red in conjunction with Art+Feminism and Wiki Loves Folklore is doing a virtual editathon in March. Another excellent project, Women in Green is now a full WikiProject! Women in Green works to bring articles about women up to Good Article status. If you're into photography and finding freely licensed photography, consider adding to Visible Wiki Women this month. This initiative is a great way to help women be truly more visible. This Women's History Month, let's complete as much history as we can and let the women shine through!

References

  1. ^ Sheppard, Alyson (2013-10-13). "Meet the 'Refrigerator Ladies' Who Programmed the ENIAC". Mental Floss. Retrieved 2020-02-27.
  2. ^ Sanders, Kevin (2016-02-29). "Why were women written out of history? An interview with Bettany Hughes". English Heritage Blog. Retrieved 2020-02-27.
  3. ^ Yong, Ed (2019-02-11). "The Women Who Contributed to Science but Were Buried in Footnotes". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2020-02-27.
  4. ^ Jaggard, Victoria (26 February 2020). "When Will Science Celebrate Everyone Equally?". National Geographic. Retrieved 2020-02-27.
  5. ^ Scott, Anne Firor (1990). "Most Invisible of All: Black Women's Voluntary Associations". The Journal of Southern History. 56 (1): 3. doi:10.2307/2210662 – via JSTOR.
  6. ^ White, Anna (March 2019). "What Schools Teach About Women's History Leaves a Lot to Be Desired". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2020-02-27.
  7. ^ "Why Women's History?". East End Women's Museum. Retrieved 2020-02-27.
  8. ^ "UK's 'First' Black Woman Memorial Statue". BBC News. 2016-06-30. Retrieved 2020-02-27.
  9. ^ Adriaanse, Leslie; Rensleigh, Chris (2018). "E-visibility of environmental science researchers at the University of South Africa". South African Journal of Libraries and Information Science. 83 (2). doi:10.7553/83-2-1636.
  10. ^ Wass, Joe (3 March 2015). "Real-time Stream of DOIs Being Cited in Wikipedia". Crossref. Retrieved 2020-02-27.
  11. ^ "DOI Referrals from wikipedia.org per day". Chronograph Labs. Retrieved 2020-02-27.
  12. ^ Cooban, George (2017). "Should Archivists Edit Wikipedia, and If So How?". Archives & Records. 38 (2): 257–272. doi:10.1080/23257962.2017.1338561 – via EBSCOhost.