Celebrate Women* Campaign 2025: Wikimedia Foundation Reflections

In March 2025, Wikimedia Foundation and communities around the world came together with one shared mission: to celebrate, uplift, and advance the leadership of women and gender-diverse contributors across our projects. To honor Women’s Month, the Wikimedia Foundation worked closely with our community to launch a series of campaigns and learning spaces that support community members working to close the gender gap. In alignment with our annual priorities, different Foundation teams came together with a shared goal: to celebrate and elevate the work of gender equity contributors, and to equip organizers with tools that reduce barriers, especially those caused by systemic challenges in gender-focused organizing.

The 2025 Celebrate Women* Campaign built on our collective commitment to close the gender gap in knowledge, leadership, and representation sparking new energy, deeper skills, and lasting collaborations across the movement.

Our Shared Success: 

• The external communications campaign “Knowledge is human. Knowledge is her” celebrated and humanized the work of gender organizers within the movement across Sub-Saharan Africa. It highlighted the work being done to ensure more reliable knowledge about notable women appears on Wikipedia in order to increase trust in and loyalty to the Wikimedia projects.
• Over 220 participants engaged across six multilingual events, designed for learning, reflection, and celebration.
• We saw the inclusion of Wikiproject Women’s Health/Vital collection of articles into the Content Translation tool, allowing editors to translate articles that address this specific gender gap.
• Use of Event Registration grew by 235% compared to the previous 8 months (from 72.5 to 171 events).*
• More than 58 events were documented globally on the international “Celebrate Women” campaign page, spanning eight regions. During March, there were roughly 4000 visits to the page!
• We also celebrated the launch of the inaugural WikiWomen* Task Force, a critical new initiative bringing coherence and momentum to gender equity work across the movement.
• During March, Global Advocacy partnered with Community Growth to help scale our support to community members. Global Advocacy shared insights with community members on how best to host a session at the United Nations, which culminated in a side event at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, raising visibility for the incredible work of our volunteers and their role in building more equitable large language pathways for artificial intelligence platforms. The team helped bring the session’s important message to the local level by working with Bridgit Kurgat and movement partners to showcase the UN session at this year’s Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum (DRIF).

While we cannot definitively link the growth in adoption to the Foundation’s activities this March, past experiences indicate that our campaign support is correlated with greater use of tools and expansion of content.

Igniting Change: Celebrating Women* Campaign Begins

The campaign officially launched on February 21, 2025, with an inspiring kickoff session led by the Foundation’s Gender Lead, Bridgitk with support from MMulaudzi-WMF.  Together, they introduced organizers to key tools including the Translation Suggestion Feature, Event Registration, and Central Notice Banners equipping communities with resources to amplify local efforts as well as key events being featured during the month.

One participant reflected, “Feeling appreciated gives me the energy to continue editing. I am excited that this year, we chose to focus on celebrations.“

This launch set the tone for a month dedicated to recognizing contributions, building skills, and deepening the movement’s commitment to gender equity.

Equipping Organizers with Tools for Impact

Throughout March, over 220 participants engaged in dynamic, hands-on sessions across six multilingual events.

Tooling Trainings: Led by EUwandu-WMF and Udehb-WMF organizers learned to leverage the Event Registration Tool, contributing to a 235% increase in event registrations compared to previous periods.

Content Translation and Central Notice Workshops: Uzoma Ozurumba facilitated translation tool training, inspiring new multilingual content creation. Central Notice Banner workshops empowered organizers to design outreach campaigns that reached broader audiences.

Programmatic Training: Astinson (WMF) and CPickens-WMF introduced strategic approaches like Organizer Lab Reframe and List-building as a Service, aimed at reducing barriers and empowering more efficient organizing.

Another participant shared, “The best part was realizing I’m not alone in this work. We are building something bigger together.“

Watch the training sessions here!

A Historic Milestone: Launching the WikiWomen* Taskforce

On March 7, in celebration of International Women’s* Day, the movement celebrated the launch of the inaugural WikiWomen* Taskforce is a collective of 12 diverse leaders representing different regions, languages, and experiences thanks to the  Wiki Women* Advisory Council Team who spend countless hours to put the team in place.

The launch event featured keynote speeches by Kira Wisniewski, Art+Feminism and Mariana Fossati, Whose Knowledge?,  a historical reflection by Netha Hussein on closing the gender gap within Wikimedia and a panel discussion with the pioneer WikiWomen* Task Force team members.

The Taskforce’s launch theme reflecting on the Past, Embracing the Present, Shaping the Future captured the spirit of a movement determined to drive lasting change.

Scan through this meta page for more information and updates!

Advancing Global Dialogue: Bridging Gender Gaps in AI

As part of Wikimedia’s engagement with the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) 2025, the campaign hosted a high-impact NGO Forum side event titled Bridging Gender Gaps in AI: Advancing Equity Through Open Knowledge on March 19.

This panel discussion brought together leading experts including; Tigist Shewarega Hussen (Feminist digital activist & researcher, APC), Zinnya Del Villar (Director of Technology, Data, and Innovation, Data-Pop Alliance), established Wikimedian and Executive Director of WOUGNET, Sandra Aceng (Executive Director, WOUGNET), and Winnie Kabintie (Movement Communications Specialist, Africa – WMF) and moderated by Bridgit Kurgat (WMF, Gender Lead) to address critical issues at the intersection of gender, AI, and ethical governance. 

Participants explored the challenges of algorithmic bias, the implications of AI on knowledge representation, and actionable strategies for fostering equitable AI development. Together, they explored algorithmic bias, ethical AI development, and the power of open knowledge to shape more equitable futures. This milestone also connected local and global advocacy efforts, raising the visibility of volunteer-driven gender equity work at the United Nations and beyond.

Importantly, this session aligned with global trends highlighted in the Wikimedia Foundation’s 2025-2026 Annual Plan, particularly the increasing challenges around neutrality, knowledge integrity, and the weaponization of AI. Strengthening gender equity is pivotal not only to correcting historic biases in content but also to ensuring a more inclusive, resilient community of contributors. Broadening representation both in knowledge and among contributors critically strengthens the movement’s ability to uphold neutrality, resist manipulation, and promote ethical AI practices. The insights shared during this session directly support Wikimedia’s broader efforts to safeguard the Neutral Point of View and combat systemic bias in an evolving global digital landscape.

Watch the recording here!

Prioritizing Inclusive Spaces: Gender Sensitivity and UCoC Training

The final event of the campaign was a Gender Sensitivity and Universal Code of Conduct (UCoC) Training, co-hosted with the Let’s Connect Team (Led by Cassie Casares with support from the Let’s Connect working Group) and Trust and Safety Team (Abigail Adu-Daako & Nasma Ahmed). This Learning Clinic aimed to:

1. Enhance awareness and practical understanding of the UCoC in gender-sensitive contexts.
2. Encourage a collaborative, action-oriented approach to gender equity within Wikimedia.

Through interactive discussions and case studies, participants gained valuable insights into fostering safer, more inclusive spaces within Wikimedia, ensuring that gender contributors are supported and protected in their advocacy efforts.

Watch the recording here.

A Shared Commitment to Sustained Change

This Women’s Month was a powerful reminder of what is possible when communities, affiliates, and Foundation teams unite across languages, regions, and expertise. We are deeply grateful to everyone who contributed to making Celebrate Women 2025 a resounding success.

Are you ready to be part of the movement?

• Share a woman’s story on Wikipedia.
  
• Host or join a Celebrate Women event.
  
• Mentor new editors passionate about gender equity.

Together, we are shaping a more inclusive future!

Special thanks to Movement Partners and Volunteers, the Community Growth, Campaigns Product, Language and Product Localization, Global Advocacy, Trust and Safety and Communications teams who came together to make the campaign a success. Special recognition to Masana who carried the torch, and helped ensure gender stays a priority.