Page:Wikipedia and Academic Libraries.djvu/24

 potential interest for women was significantly less, and that male and female editors focused on di erent content areas when writing for Wikipedia. Wagner et al. (2016) found that there is topical gender bias on Wikipedia, as the most searched terms in relation to women (pre- and post-1900) were her husband, women’s, actress, and female, whereas for men words included served, elected, politician, played, league, and football. Research on gender imbalance on Wikipedia demonstrates that the content of the platform cannot always be “neutral” due to the gender bias among the contributors.

The lack of representation of women on Wikipedia motivated the team to address the issue by contributing to Wikipedia content about women activists in the region and the impact these women have had on their communities. e idea was also influenced by a public event that touched upon gender issues in the country. In the fall of 2019, Kyrgyzstan experienced an incident that caused heated discussions in the country about gender justice. e feminist art exhibition, Feminnale, brought whip-wielding nationalists out to protest. “Controversial” performances and installations, designed to call attention to women’s problems, appeared in the press and became the fulcrum of public debates (Suyarkulova, 2020a). Public opinion was divided and both sides were presented in the media. However, the prevailing coverage appealed to traditions pertaining to patriarchal cultural norms, leaving aside such issues as women’s economic empowerment and gender violence, both of which had been central themes of the exhibition (Tuitunova, 2019).

Students in both courses were given the space to discuss the event from different perspectives. These discussions resulted in the creation of Wikipedia content aimed at filling the gaps in coverage of women issues in the region. For both courses, the faculty-library team designed Wikipedia assignments aimed at developing students’ research skills, while also increasing their motivation, enthusiasm, and overall learning experience. In one of the courses, students were o ered the chance to create Wikipedia pages about female political leaders in Central Asia, including members of parliaments. In the other course, the assignment included writing pages about feminist activism in the