National Collaborative for Women's History Sites

The National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites (NCWHS) supports and promotes the preservation and interpretation of sites and locales that bear witness to women's participation in American life. The Collaborative makes women's contributions to history visible so that all women's experiences and potential are fully valued. Support our efforts by becoming a member. Learn more >

The weak presence of women's history on Wikipedia -- a consequence in part of the small number of women (fewer than 15%) who edit Wikipedia -- has long been a topic of conversation among those interested in promise and peril of this massive online encyclopedia, but there has been an uptick in discussion of this issue lately, as edit-a-thons and conference sessions aim both to explore and address this gap.  In March 2013, the Albert M. Greenfield Digital Center for the History of Women's Education at Bryn Mawr College hosted a conference, Women's History in the Digital World, that included a talk on Wikipedia by Mia Ridge, (Department of History, Open University; editor of the forthcoming volume Crowdsourcing our Cultural Heritage); on March 15, 2013, the national event #TooFEW (Feminists Edit Wikipedia) encouraged users in groups or on their own to edit Wikipedia’s content; and on April 16th, a Women's History Edit-a-thon occurred at the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.

The National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites has partnered with the National Park Service in an effort to identify places that are significant to the history of American women. We recently completed a survey aimed at identifying important themes, people, and places in women’s history. The survey remained open until 9:00 pm Eastern time, Friday, April 26, 2013, and is now closed. Watch this space for a report of our results!