Wiki Women* Task Force/Updates

The Advisory Council is thrilled to introduce the first-ever WikiWomen* Task Force (WWTF) – a dedicated group of volunteers committed to advancing gender equity across Wikimedia. This milestone marks a significant step toward strengthening women*'s participation, leadership, and representation within the movement.

A heartfelt thank you to everyone who contributed to this process—our dedicated nominees, evaluators, and community members. Your insights, patience, and commitment have shaped this journey, and we deeply appreciate your engagement in building a more inclusive Wikimedia.

After a rigorous and collaborative selection process, we are excited to announce the WWTF shortlisted members:

• South Asia: Chinmayee Mishra
• LAC: Calliandra Dysantha, Carmen
• ESEAP: Amanda Lawrence
• NWE: Camelia Boban
• SSA: Ruby Brown, Barakat Adegboye
• MENA: Ravan, Nada
• CEECA: Anna Prodomou, Mariana Senkiv
• USA & Canada: No nominees from this region

📌 Guiding Principles of the Selection Process

Candidates were evaluated based on five key criteria:
✅ Motivation;
✅ Time and Effort Commitment;
✅ Skills and Experience;
✅ Communication and Collaboration;
✅ Self-Awareness and Diversity.

To ensure fairness and clarity, scores were standardized by multiplying the maximum score by 5. This helped highlight each candidate’s strengths while minimizing marginal differences.

📢 Key Considerations & Decisions

💡 Candidates with project-specific blocks – Those blocked on a sister project (but not on multiple projects, or globally) were considered eligible.
💡 Regions with no candidates – These positions remain unfilled for now, with ongoing efforts to identify strong candidates.
💡 Regions with one nominee – We move forward with the single candidate.
💡 Multiple candidates from the same country – Representation was carefully balanced, including for regions with large countries like India.
💡 Same-affiliation candidates – Natural overlaps were acknowledged while ensuring diversity.

With the selection complete, the WWTF is almost ready to begin its exciting work! Stay tuned for upcoming updates on their initiatives, priorities, and impact in advancing gender equity within Wikimedia.

Thank you once again for your participation and support in shaping this transformative initiative!

On behalf of the WikiWomen* Advisory Council,
Ciell (talk) 13:12, 17 February 2025 (UTC) [reply ]

Hello everyone,

In January, the Advisory Council has mainly been discussing and scoring the nominees for the WikiWomen Task Force positions, and we will go into deliberations about the candidate short-list next week.

To celebrate the creation of the WikiWomen Task Force, and kick of International Women's Day 2025, we will be organizing an online session on Friday March 7, where we want to introduce the WikiWomen Task Force to you, and take a moment to celebrate this milestone. More details and a sign-up sheet will be shared soon, but please already mark the day in your calendars!

Best, Ciell (talk) 18:44, 29 January 2025 (UTC) [reply ]

Hello Wikimedians,

The WikiWomen* Advisory Council wanted to share an update with our communities before we close for the year.

The WikiWomen* Advisory Council has been meeting weekly (since 25 September 2024) and collaborating asynchronously to steer the formation of the WikiWomen* Task Force.

1. Extended Nomination Process

The nominations for the task force began before the Advisory Council began its deliberations. The council deeply deliberated and unanimously decided to extend the last date for nominations to 6 January 2025. The previous process felt incomplete in terms of information required from nominees to support a holistic decision making process.

The nomination period was consciously reopened to ensure adequate regional representation in the task force. We are prioritizing nominations from North America, South America, Asia, and Oceania to improve regional representation.

2. Grant Request

The Advisory Council has submitted a grant request with the Wikimedia Foundation to support its work; a core aspect being administrative and facilitation resources of 4 hours per week that would allow the council to focus on the strategic initiative of electing the task force.

If you would like to support our work, kindly help us with translations and spreading the word around reopened nominations. Your translations and outreach efforts would amplify our reach to a wider audience! You can for instance translate our updated pages about the Task Force on Meta, the Diff blog that explains what happens when women participate less in the knowledge creation process on Wikimedia projects, or the Diff blog with the WikiWomen Camp 2023 declaration.

The Advisory Council will reconvene 6 January 2025 onward and actively proceed towards scoring the completed nominations and announcing the task force.
As reflected in our updated timeline, we strive to announce the chosen members in March 2025.

Thank you for your continued support.

On behalf of the Wiki Women* Advisory Council, Ciell (talk) 19:27, 18 December 2024 (UTC) [reply ]