Why a TV Show Sponsored a Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon

Female entrepreneurship. Second-wave feminism. Women who broke the glass ceiling in industries far and wide. Odds are the Wikipedia entries for these topics were written and edited by men. In fact, only about 16 percent of contributors in the U.S. are female (that’s a top-end estimate; the numbers are much lower internationally).

But what happens when 65 women come together to begin fixing this striking imbalance? The female entrepreneurship page now displays the harsh reality that, “Due to lack of funding for women in new businesses, many women founders have had to hire or create fake male profiles to act as co-founders, executives, or the face of their businesses to make progress.”

There’s now information on a variety of women from Julia Boynton Green, an American poet known as an “anti-modernist who railed against free verse,” to Parker Day, a Los Angeles-based photographer who “explores identity and the masks we wear.”

The attendees were of a project called WikiWomen, which Paramount Network put together at the NeueHouse in Los Angeles to promote the upcoming dramedy American Woman. (The show, which premieres June 7, is a fictionalized account of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ star Kyle Richards’ early life.) Set in mid-1970s Los Angeles, American Woman features female characters who wade into a male-dominated world, striking out on their own, changing the workplace and bucking societal norms—much like the women who tackled the male gaze of Wikipedia, which itself features a page on “gender bias on Wikipedia.”

Paramount Network

The network, partnering with NowThis and Wikipedia, invited experts in arts, education, STEM and other fields, from different age groups and ethnicities. An exec from NASA could only participate in the Los Angeles event if it didn’t rain on Mars the day of the gathering (otherwise she’d be stuck in the office monitoring the precipitation. “Skies” were clear, and she made it). Also attending: everyday gals from diverse backgrounds who wanted to learn the Wiki process. Everyone got a tutorial on Wiki rules and suggestions on how to start contributing.

Together, the participants updated nearly 100 entries, created 18 new ones and added almost 10,000 words to Wikipedia.

One executive at Paramount Network, Anhelo Reyes, svp, consumer marketing, said the project is in “perfect alignment” with the message of American Woman, which is a period piece about women who would’ve been deemed pushy broads at the time rather than brave trailblazers.

“This event is not a one-off. We are hoping to inspire women to continue injecting their voices into Wikipedia and get involved in fields they’ve been underrepresented in,” Reyes said. “We want to be part of the larger movement to give women the visibility, participation and representation that is owed.”

Paramount Network, its media agency Horizon Media and NowThis shot footage of the recent rooftop event in Hollywood and will share the branded content across social and owned channels on June 4, three days before the series premieres.

While brainstorming ideas to promote the comedy-drama hybrid that stars Alicia Silverstone, Mena Suvari and Jennifer Bartels, Paramount realized how little had changed in 40 years, when the show takes place, and now. Women are still fighting for equal pay, maternity leave and opportunities to advance in male-dominated fields.

And as for the world’s most popular crowdsourced encyclopedia, women’s perspectives and contributions are often missing.

One participant, former ad copywriter Phyllis Hansen, was busy writing bios of California women like artist and entrepreneur Mrs. A.S.C. Forbes. Though the women she wrote about had played a pivotal role in the state’s history and forged a path for those who followed, they were completely absent from Wikipedia, she said.

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This story first appeared in the May 28, 2018, issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.