Students ‘correct gender bias’ on Wikipedia for science class project

A Meredith College biology professor is working to “correct gender bias” on Wikipedia by having her students write new entries about female scientists for the online encyclopedia.

The project is part of Professor Natasha Butz’s “Women in Science” class – a subject the private North Carolina college deems to be so important that it recently decided to offer the class more often, according to a news article on the college’s website.

Butz, an assistant professor of biological sciences, gave her fall class the assignment to write an article for one of two projects Wikipedia projects: WikiProject Women Scientists and Under-representation of Science and Women in Africa, the article states.

The WikiProject Women Scientists is “dedicated to ensuring quality and coverage of biographies of female scientists” as part of a larger effort by Wikipedia to “counter and remedy the systemic bias with women on Wikipedia.”