Winner
Anusha Alikhan
Chief Communications Officer, Wikimedia Foundation
Wikimedia CCO Is Making Sure History Includes Women — So the Future Does, Too
As Chief Communications Officer at the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that hosts Wikipedia, Anusha Alikhan is inviting everyone to contribute to women’s history. She’s leading a global initiative to get more women’s bios on Wikipedia at a time when nearly half (49%) of Wikipedia’s readers are women but only 13% of active editors on Wikimedia identify as women and only 19% of its biographies are about women. This gap reflects a long tradition of women being written out of history — and a future where women are excluded, too, since nearly every generative AI model currently relies on Wikipedia as their primary training source. So changing the stats at Wikipedia means dramatically improving our global knowledge base. As Alikahn has written, ”To truly reflect the complexity and richness of the human experience, it is essential that Wikipedia actively engages and includes more content about and contributions from women— cis, transgender, and non-binary — from around the world.”
By Katy Brennan
