WIKIEMAKUMEOK: MAKING WOMEN’S CONTRIBUTIONS VISIBLE

In January 2015 I created my first article on Wikipedia, and it was deleted. After my initial anger, I had two options: either give up or learn. I chose to learn, and with the support of Wikimedia Spain we organized, in Vitoria-Gasteiz (November 2015), the first of many Wikimedia gatherings held over these ten years to contribute to Wikimedia projects. That was the seed of the activist project WikiEmakumeok, which now includes several groups of women editors in various Basque towns, focused on achieving a balanced presence of women and men in Wikipedia.

In 2014, only 12% of biographies on Spanish Wikipedia were about women. By July 2025, the figure is around 24%. In Basque, thanks to the work of WikiEmakumeok editing groups (especially the “wikitalde” based in Durango), the percentage of women’s biographies rose from 19% in 2020 to 33% in 2025. In a decade, we have contributed more than 12,000 biographies of women from the Basque Country and around the world, mainly in Basque, but also in Spanish.

2In 2023, thanks to Josi Sierra, we recorded a documentary narrating the genealogy of WikiEmakumeok in the Basque Country. Some staff from Zehar-Errefuxiatuekin watched the film and showed interest in the challenge posed by Marta Calvo: how could we involve racialized people and those from diverse backgrounds in editing groups?

WEAVING MUTUAL SUPPORT AND FREE KNOWLEDGE

Within the framework of the project Entretejidas/Sareginak-WikiEmakumeok, we have carried out several workshops and weekend immersions that, for me, have been transformative. In addition to creating, improving, and translating articles about women and communities on Wikipedia, we built a space of mutual support. Recognizing the life stories of women as social and cultural leaders, land defenders, artists, migrant/refugee activists, and others is also a form of symbolic reparation and resistance.

The Immigration Law affects all aspects of daily life and also the possibilities of generating free knowledge. How can you edit Wikipedia if your legal status prevents you from opening a bank account, accessing a computer, or having the time and space to learn? How can you document the history of your hometown and your role models if your very existence is considered “irregular”?

This legal and social barrier produces a representational void: what is not named or documented doesn’t or doesn’t seem to exist. And those who lack the time, capacity, or agency to name and document do not exist either. This limits the generation of knowledge and the visibility of contributions from populations without full citizenship rights (especially migrants/refugees who care for our children and elderly, or who work in hospitality, construction, or agriculture).

It is essential to promote redistributive policies that guarantee dignified lives for all; activate anti-rumor strategies to dismantle racist and classist stereotypes; fund digital literacy programs with an intersectional perspective for migrants, refugees, and racialized people; and support memory and documentation projects that foster self-representation of diverse communities.

We believe that mixed spaces like the labs promoted by Zehar-Errefuxiatuekin, are fundamental for meeting, listening, learning together, building collectively, and making visible projects led by women. They are also key for accompanying each other in creating new personal and collective projects. Because talent is infinite, and knowledge grows the more it is shared.

The participation of migrant/refugee and racialized women in Wikimedia projects requires processes of support and dynamics that overcome ableism, eurocentrism, and white validation of knowledge. We are learning a lot from this process, which is a collective commitment, so that many more diverse people can contribute to generating and sharing (orally, in writing, analogically, or digitally) the sum of all human knowledge.

RECOGNIZING LOCAL AND GLOBAL TALENTS

In 2024, thanks to the Wiki Takes San Francisco project, I was able to talk with people living in this high district of Bilbao and learn part of its history, now documented on Wikipedia with over a hundred new articles in Spanish and Basque. I saw how people from other Bilbao neighborhoods were reluctant to approach the San Francisco neighborhood library to participate in our Wikimedia activities. The constructed narrative of insecurity has prevented many from discovering the richness, diversity, and talent in the neighborhood. And what we do not recognize, we can hardly value.

In the streets of San Francisco there is much wasted talent (brain waste). To sustain productive lives in the neoliberal system, in any other global north city, there are many women working 24/7 as caregivers. They are professionals with undeployed talents, carrying out essential social care functions, in exchange for a minimal salary. What if we recognized care work with dignified wages? What if, in addition, we valued these caregivers’ experiences as journalists, lawyers, activists, engineers, artists, and more?

DEMOCRATIZING THE ACCESS AND USE OF TECHNOLOGY

In the age of AI and quantum technology, as in previous technological waves, a recurring unresolved issue is the democratization of access, creation, and use of technologies to unlock other talents. We live in times of concentrated power, where technologies with incredible potential are used for surveillance and control. Will these technologies reinforce stereotypes? How can we avoid new gaps in access and use?

Committing to open, free, and distributed technologies broadens the spectrum of voices and talents to address increasingly complex problems and needs. In an eco-dependent and interdependent world, where information and knowledge flows know no borders, we still face mental barriers (beliefs and stereotypes) and physical ones (restrictions on movement).

Classism and aporophobia are barriers that limit people’s potential. It is in our hands to become aware of our privileges and biases, to listen and pay attention, without paternalism, to what other human beings, like you and me, also need to build meaningful lives of their own.

Acknowledgments

To Laura Fiorucci for her virtual support over the past decade. To all the wikilaris who have accompanied me through these years, practicing #VeniVidiWiki. To Marisa Barrena and the Durango wikitalde for their great Wikimedia work. To Marta Calvo Larralde for broadening my perspective. To Wikitoki for giving me the chance to get to know the San Francisco neighborhood. To Arturo Izarzelaia and Xabier Aretxaga for their remarkable work in documenting and spreading knowledge about Bilbao’s Upper Districts. To the Zehar-Errefuxiatuekin team for weaving us together. To Dora González, for being the best ambassador of the Entretejidas-WikiEmakumeok project. To Fátima Tórrez González, for helping many women regain their dignity. To Irati-Nahele Barreña and Ana González, for their contributions in improving this text. To Salima Ahmiduch El Haddouti and Umetha Chouwey Mohamed, for putting their talents at the service of others. To Jaio de la Puerta for so much shared talent.