Lightning talk on empowering girls with digital skills for Wikimedia: transcript

Key points

• Many girls and women lack digital tools, reliable internet and digital literacy because of inequalities in education, income and infrastructure.
• The gender divide means fewer women contribute to Wikipedia and Wikidata, so there are fewer articles and data entries about women.
• Even when women are documented, their stories are often incomplete or lack photos and context.
• A project for girls aged 13 to 21, run with a partner organisation and the Wikimedia movement, has trained over 100 girls.
• Girls learn to fix typos, add references, play the Wikidata game and contribute images to Commons.
• Some senior high school participants have moved on to university and now train younger girls.

Chapters

1. 0:01Introducing the initiative and its aims
2. 1:07The digital gender divide and its causes
3. 1:42How the divide affects Wikimedia content
4. 3:17The girls' digital skills training project
5. 3:57Why start young: girls becoming trainers

Full transcript

0:01Asansi Alice, thank you. My name is Delasesi Adli and I'm here with Joy Jepon. And today we want to share a story of impact, a story of hope, and a story of inclusion. That's when you involve young girls at a very early age on digital skills and media skills, it helps, it helps, you know, for the future of the movements. next slide so this image also access a very important question this is what happens when girls aren't just taught how to use the internet but are also empowered to shape it and that's the journey we currently form as wiki our initiative from understanding the digital device to showing what is working and why this matters for the future of the wikimedia movement so Alright, so today we will explore the gender-digital divide and how this gap reflects on Wikimedia projects,

1:07especially Wikipedia and how early digital skills can transform girls into leaders in open knowledge. Around the world, many girls and women lack access to digital tools and reliable internet not just because they do not want to participate, but because of the systematic inequalities in education and income and infrastructures. So the lack of this also leads to limited opportunities to build digital literacy and also such as basic ICT skills, research methods, and confidence in using the platforms.

1:42As a result, women and girls are less likely to be engaged in digital creation, contribute to open knowledge, or see themselves representative online. The digital gender divide is also more than just a technical issue. It reflects deep-rooted social norms and structural barriers that exclude women from the digital world. so we're looking at how this reflects um you know in the only in the balance on within their platforms so because of this digital gender divide we discussed earlier there are simply fewer women who become contributors on wikimedia platforms like wikipedia or wikidata this also leads to an obvious gap which which which is fewer articles and data entries about women especially in the field of history, science, what have you, politics and folklore.

2:43So, even when women are documented, their stories are often incomplete or missing key elements like photos or contextual depths. In this way, parent gabs on multimedia murals, the broader exclusion of women in the society. So, what works? As I said in the previous slides, this presents a powerful opportunity as this gap isn't permanent.

3:17When girls between the ages of 13 to 21 are introduced early to Wikipedia and its sister projects, they learn more than editing, they lead, they ask questions and build knowledge. So through the Dictile Skills for Girls project, a partnership between Women Trust and the Wikimedia Movement Foundation via WikiHour initiatives, We've trained over 100 girls. We've provided safe inclusive ICT skills training and also the project highlights the importance and the benefits of using open educational resources whilst in school and preparing for the universities.

3:57So girls learn to fix typos, add references, play the wiki data game to to build research skills and contribute images to media, hormones and the rest of them. So, this image also is a reminder that inclusion is, yes, sorry, it looks like I have to look at this radar. The future inclusive starts with us. In 30 seconds, we would say that it's important to start with the youth because once they're able to grasp the knowledge of Wikipedia, before they get to the university, they are well equipped and then they become leaders.

4:43because we've had cases where about 10 to 20 kids who were in the senior high school have moved to the university in their third level and they are now training the younger ones. Thank you very much.

Source and licence

Recording: File:From Learners to Leaders - Empowering Girls with Digital Skills for a More Inclusive Wikimedia Future - Lightning Talk - Wikimania Day 3 - Nairobi.webm by SAgbley and joyag (2025-08-08), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0. The transcript, summary and chapters on this page are shared under the same licence (CC BY-SA 4.0).

The transcript is machine speech-to-text by the TidyTools Audio & video transcriber; the summary, key points and chapters were written by Claude from that transcript. Both may contain errors: check the recording before quoting it.