could I make a wikipedia page stick?

April 10, 2020 1:35 PM

My mother is a highly accomplished nurse in an executive position at a major hospital, and she has been deeply involved in the coronavirus response since it came to the US. We're working hard to help her feel supported and appreciated. My wife suggested that we be able to make a Wikipedia entry for her! I think it's a great idea, but I know that Wikipedia's editing community has a poor track record with deleting pages of women in STEM. How could we make a page stick?
posted by skookumsaurus rex to Science & Nature (9 answers total)

That's a great thing to recognize! Wikipedia might not be the right place, though. Making sure she meets notability guidelines is a good place to start. The rule of thumb: Has she received a lot of coverage for her work? You need reliable, independent sources to make the case for her notability. Once you have assembled that base, it sounds like you're in a good place to start an article.
posted by quadrilaterals at 1:39 PM on April 10, 2020 [6 favorites]

Best answer: There needs to be authoritative, hopefully fact-checked information about her. - has she been profiled in a newspaper? Books published about her?

This is kind of the tricky thing about getting women in STEM on Wikipedia - it's not just bias on the part of wiki editors, it's bias against women in general which means they are profiled less often.
posted by muddgirl at 1:41 PM on April 10, 2020 [17 favorites]

The main thing you need is to establish and properly reference her notability, as mentioned. It will be tough going if she doesn’t have reliable, independent secondary sources publishing stuff about her.

You will do best to create the article in a sandbox and get it into good shape before making it live.

You also should read carefully about BLP guidelines.
, and notability specifically for people.
posted by SaltySalticid at 1:44 PM on April 10, 2020 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Would it work to make a page about the people on the front line of the fight against coronavirus and collect stories of other people from the news, including your mother?
posted by CathyG at 1:50 PM on April 10, 2020 [1 favorite]

This may be tricky as you will be seen as having a conflict of interest about the article subject. Have a look at the conflict of interest guide. You will probably want to create a draft as recommended in point 6 here, and ask someone to review it, rather than going ahead with direct article creation.

The Women in Red project page and associated Resources should be helpful. Once you have identified some reliable, independent sources about her (and bear in mind published interviews or passing mentions usually don't count for this purpose), I would consider posting to the Women in Red Talk page to ask for advice. There are some very helpful editors there.
posted by paduasoy at 1:54 PM on April 10, 2020 [8 favorites]

Best answer: Feel free to contact me directly and I will be happy to work with you. I am a longtime editor and cannot only give you some advice (as to whether she'll hit the notability points or not) but I'd really be happy to work with you on a draft so you avoid conflict of interest. I'm a Women in Red participant and getting more women on Wikipedia brings me joy. As others have said, you can't do this directly but with help,if she's got the media coverage she'll need, this can happen. Email in profile (better than MeMail)
posted by jessamyn at 3:40 PM on April 10, 2020 [45 favorites]

If it's your mother, it's not at all appropriate for you to create a Wikipedia page about her.

Wikipedia has lots of problems, including sexism problems, but I think deleting an article about a living person where the author has such a massive conflict of interest is absolutely the right thing to do.

And for your own sake, you might find that trying to get an article to 'stick' is an exercise in frustration and getting emotionally invested in Wikipedia edits is a bad idea.

I would recommend a family appreciation videochat call, or collaboratively written letter of appreciation, or community newsletter article, or flowers instead.
posted by splitpeasoup at 3:50 PM on April 10, 2020 [6 favorites]

Thank you for trying to help make Wikipedia a better public resource!
posted by value of information at 4:57 PM on April 10, 2020 [4 favorites]

You should also know that some people who have an article about them want it to be deleted because it brings them unwanted attention especially if there is any information about them that is publicly available but embarrassing. So it's worth considering whether this - a webpage about her that she cannot control hosted on one of the most visited websites in the world - is something that your mother would really like.
posted by ElKevbo at 8:07 PM on April 10, 2020 [5 favorites]