Wikimania 2024

Barnraising - from the Temperance Movement to the WikiWomen Movement
08-09, 10:00–10:25 (Poland), Dilijan (3) (interpretation)
Language: English

Women’s engagement in the temperance movement of the "long nineteenth century" has been documented in many countries. How they collaborated, organized, developed leaders, documented their work, convened, dealt with disagreements, engaged in exclusionary practices, and remained resilient are applicable learnings for today’s WikiWomen Movement. Focusing on Wikipedia articles, Wikisource documents, and Wikimedia Commons photos, this session examines elements of a multi-decade international volunteer women's movement. Key concepts related to familial, cultural, sociological, and civil society influences are examined through the lens of today's WikiWomen Movement.


Description: Based on Wikipedia articles, Wikimedia Commons photos, and Wikisource documents, this session provides an overview of women’s involvement in the temperance movement of the "long nineteenth century". The historical learnings provide a basis for a compare-and-contrast with the modern-day WikiWomen Movement. This session aims to provide an awareness of how historical women in different countries navigated the complexities of their era to achieve specific goals. This historical lens provides a roadmap for today's WikiWomen as we plot out our future.

Objectives: Within the context of the women’s temperance movement in the long nineteenth century, become familiar with how women:
* Established, joined, and collaborated
* Developed leaders
* Developed alternate lines of work to suit personal interests
* Documented their work and relied on society to document it
* Convened in their municipality, country, and internationally
* Engaged in exclusionary practices
* Remained resilient when faced with adversity
* The role of civil society in how these women and their movement are remembered today

Session recording: https://youtu.be/IKtMkTIRTVk?t=1986


How does your session relate to the event themes: Collaboration of the Open?*

The women's temperance movement began more than 150 years ago. Many source documents about that movement and the women who were part of it are in the public domain today and have been used to create hundreds of Wikipedia biographies. Wikimedia Commons holds hundreds of their photos and Wikisource contains countless source documents associated with these women and their movement. While their cause (temperance) differs from ours (building an encyclopedia), WikiWomen can learn from their collaborations and how civil society left their memory for our knowledge today. Timewise, compared with the women's temperance movement, today's Wikiwomen Movement is in its infancy. Having a historical understanding of "collaboration of the open" in the context of those women through the lens of Wikipedia, Wikisource, and Wikimedia Commons will help today's WikiWomen navigate a future-thinking roadmap of our "collaboration of the open".

What is the experience level needed for the audience for your session?*

Everyone can participate in this session

How do you plan to deliver this session?*

Onsite in Katowice

What other themes or topics does your session fit into? Please choose from the list of tags below.

Collaboration, Capacity building, Storytelling

See also: Slidedeck

I am a veteran EN-WP editor (2007) and EN-WP admin (2009) who has created >5,000 articles, of which >2,200 are women's biographies. I have uploaded thousands of public domain images to Wikimedia Commons, and am also active on Wikidata. On-wiki, I am the co-founder of Wiki Women in Red (2015), now on 34 language Wikipedias, whose scope is to reduce Wikipedia's content gender gap.

In 2021, I was elected to the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees where I serve/served on several committees including Audit, Board Governancee, Community Affairs, and Executive. I am the current Chair of the Talent & Culture Committee, and I am a member of the Sibling Projects Task Force.

I served on AffCom (2016-21), the last 2 years as Chair; on the Board of Wikimedia DC (2016-21), the last 5 years as Vice-President. I am the co-founder of WikiWomen's User Group, WikiConference North America User Group, and WikiCemeteries User Group.

In 2016, I was honored to be named Wikipedian of the Year. Two years later, I was Knighted, in part because of my Wikipedia work.

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