Project highlights forgotten female
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Names such as Florence Durham and Elizabeth Press may not immediately spring to mind
when considering the history of
medicine but efforts are under way to get them recognised alongside the likes of Francis
Crick and Sir John Gurdon on one of
the world’s most influential platforms: Wikipedia.
Last week the National Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) hosted an “edit-a-thon”, aimed
at bolstering entries for female
Medical Research Council-affiliated scientists and creating articles for others who have been
forgotten.
Held on 25 July – symbolic as the birthday of the often overlooked X-ray crystallographer
Rosalind Franklin – the event is the
first of six that the MRC is running throughout 2013 as part of its centenary celebrations.
Attendees at the session, 20 women and three men, were versed in how to create and edit
articles and given access to the NIMR
Library and Wellcome Library collections to help create content.
Not only are female scientists under-represented on Wikipedia pages, less than 10 per cent of
the website’s editors are thought to
be women, representatives from Wikimedia UK – the national charity that supports the online
encyclopedia – told attendees.
Edith Sim, dean of science, engineering and computing at Kingston University, worked on
the page about Elizabeth Press, an
immunologist who contributed to research into the structure of antibodies that won Rodney
Porter the 1972 Nobel prize, but
who Professor Sim said remained “hidden” to the public.
Professor Sim had never before edited a Wikipedia page but said she planned to use the skills
to boost the profiles of female
academics at her own institution.
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