Wikipedia:WikiProject Women in Red/100 Women
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Birthday card
This first draft was completed on 17 July 2025 in time for Women in Red's tenth birthday on 18 July. On the day of the project's birth, Wikipedia's front page had a celebratory Did You Know (see below). Rosie was rushing around the Hilton Hotel in Mexico City so that Roger could be Skyped in. Rosie stood at the podium and Roger had just got back from work and he was sitting on his sofa in Derby. Would anyone take any notice? Would the audience understand our idea? Would Rosie get a Skype session projected on the wall? .... Roger aka Victuallers (talk) 15:56, 17 July 2025 (UTC)
... would you believe ... the Capitol Hill choir sang Happy Birthday Women in Red! Wooooo! Victuallers (talk) 10:01, 19 July 2025 (UTC)
The list of 100
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Eliza Wigham | ||
| Scottish suffragist | Did You Know that Edinburgh's "forgotten heroines", Eliza Wigham, Jane Smeal, Priscilla Bright McLaren, and Elizabeth Pease, were associated with the Edinburgh Ladies' Emancipation Society? The successful suffrage movement in Britain started in the Isle of Man and went to Manchester where Lydia Becker and Richard Pankhurst inspired a movement and the emergence of the suffragettes. Eliza was a leader in Edinburgh and she befriended US visitors Sarah Parker Remond and Frederick Douglass. She helped to gouge a slogan into the Queen's grass objecting to the church investing in US slavery. On the day of the launch of Women in Red a Did You Know appeared on Wikipedia's main page organised by Roger and Rosie. The hook read as above. Edinburgh still provides a base for Women in Red. Ewan McAndrew who is a Wikimedian in Residence at the University of Edinburgh has arranged over 70 monthly editing sessions to increase the number of women on Wikipedia. | Sarah Parker Remond
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Amanitore | ||
| Sudanese Queen | Did You Know that the very ancient rulers who were buried in pyramids are in Sudan? You get to study all kinds of things when you research women's biographies. You wouldn't be surprised to find Nefertiti but how about Amanitore? Not only do we know when and where she lived, but we also have carvings of her. A few of our editors have tried to write an article for a woman from every country in the world. A tour like Nellie Bly's. Lucy Moore notably made this claim and the Guardian newspaper, the BBC and CNN wrote about her achievement. Lucy has written over 700 articles and about 600 of those are women. | Lucy's Round the World Challenge
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Pandrosion | ||
| Mathematician in 4th-century Alexandria | Did You Know that when Pandrosion, the earliest known woman mathematician, was misgendered in 1878, it took scholars over a century to correct the mistake? We have no idea what she looked like, but we know she worked on the Squaring the circle problem. Closcope created an image which is included in her article on the hy:wikipedia. It seems bad that she was misgendered because it was thought unlikely that this ancient mathematician might have been a woman. I just typed "mathematician" into Google images and I was pleased to see that it was no longer a wall of men... and at least one was a "Woman in Red" I recognised. Google did show an image for Hypatia (but not for Pandrosion). | 
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Bamba Müller | ||
| Egyptian Christian | Did You Know that Bamba Müller was a real life Cinderella? She was picked to be a wife to the Black Prince of Perthshire. Bamba had been placed in a mission in Egypt by her German father and she was a leading female Christian convert there. Her life changed when the man who was the heir to what is now Pakistan, Maharaja Duleep Singh visited her home. He and his family had been removed from Pakistan and he was a (forced) guest of the British government. Queen Victoria had befriended him and she had advised that he needed to find a Christian wife and he had decided it should be an unsophisticated Eastern girl. That was why he visited the convent. He made a huge gift to the convent and Bamba prayed and then agreed to leave with him. Sadly, Bamba was not happy, she took to drink and died of renal failure. However they had three beautiful daughters (pictured). One of her daughters was a leading suffragette and another died in Pakistan, leaving the mementos of her royal heritage to a museum. | 
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Omowunmi Sadik | ||
| Nigerian-born scientist | Did You Know that Omowunmi Sadik has developed highly sensitive microelectrode biosensors that can detect explosives? ... and notably she is the second Nigerian in this list who works on recycling technology. She has worked with explosives (like Jessie Kenney below) and she fits the title of "interesting inventor" - and we have a few of those as well... and the image is so important for people to see "someone like me" - so thanks to the Science History Institute who supplied the free to use image! | 
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Mary Jobe Akeley | ||
| American explorer | Did You Know that Mary Jobe Akeley, who explored Africa, bought Mystic Island so that rich girls (and princesses) could experience a wild life? When Women in Red started, "woman explorer" seemed a rare claim to fame. But, without really trying, we have included quite a few here. Specifically, Sarah Margru Kinson, Sayragul Sauytbay, Helen Nyirenda Kaunda, Isabel Zendal, Jane Elizabeth Waterston, Kate Marsden, Harriet Henderson, Arnaq, Paulina Irby, Mary Schäffer Warren, Elizabeth Hetherwick and Florence Baker are all in this list and they are all explorers of a sort. We have an index and you can find them there. Mary's heritage continues today in the pictured Peace Sanctuary. Is Mary Jobe Akeley the most interesting woman explorer here? You decide. | ,_Mystic,_CT.jpg)
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Fanny Eckerlin | ||
| Italian opera singer | Did You Know that Fanny Eckerlin was included in this list to celebrate the 10th birthday of the Women in Red project? The 10th birthday was on 18 July 2025 and one of our celebrants was Ser Amantio di Nicolao who has been a long friend of Women in Red and the Wikipedia project in general. He sent us a fabulous virtual birthday card, and a request that we include Fanny. Not a problem! We like to return favours and the Italian partners of Women in Red have been particularly active matching the activity on other language Wikipedias. So find out about Fanny, Donizetti and Rossini. | 
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Hazel de Berg | ||
| Australian oral historian | Did You Know that Hazel de Berg was sidetracked from creating "Talking Books for the Blind" to create 1,700 oral histories (for all of us)? Hazel de Berg created a talking book based on the work of Mary Gilmore (picture on the right). Hazel had decided to record a short interview with an author, but she was so pleased with the result that she did some more... 1,700 more. Oral history is very important to many cultures and Wikipedians find it a challenge. We find it easiest to reference our sources to books or web sites, as we had decided that "Someone told me" was not a good reference. However sometimes oral evidence is all there is. The work of oral historians, like Hazel, allows these histories to be recorded and referenced. This is especially important in countries like Australia and Africa where there is less ancient written history. Well done Hazel, (and all those who are recording oral histories). | 
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Salinee Tavaranan | ||
| Thai scientist | Did You Know that Salinee Tavaranan helped install solar panels and micro-hydro turbines at the Mae La refugee camp? There are millions of refugees in the world and it's easy to think that Women in Red needs to tackle women of every nationality, but this overlooks those who have lost or never had a nationality. Salinee didn't forget them. She and her Border Green Energy Team went to work helping the 700,000 people who were living at the Mae La refugee camp in Thailand. Several countries have a population less than 700,000, and the huge Mae La refugee camp is just one of the nine camps in Thailand. Salinee became one of the BBC 100 women, Mary Mark Ockerbloom drafted her biography and that is why she appears here. | BBC 100 Women Online Editathon, 
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Claudine Picardet | ||
| French scientist | Did You Know that 18th-century chemist Claudine Picardet translated scientific articles from Swedish, English, German, and Italian into French? I was reading about the history of science and Robin Ince (see my photo of him) was highlighting the difference between alchemists and scientists. The now-extinct alchemists kept secret their experiments to create gold, whereas the scientists shared their findings internationally. Translators who understood the science were an essential part of the success of science. Interestingly, the first scientist is said to be Mary Somerville. Before she hit the headlines, the newspapers would write about "Men of Science". They had to invent the word "scientist" for her. (Mary discovered a planet and she taught Ada Lovelace). This article was worked on during an Ada Lovelace Day editathon. | Ada Lovelace Day (Women in Science 
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Maewa Kaihau | ||
| Maori lyricist |
Did You Know that a Maori woman was one of the creators of the song "Now is the Hour"? Maewa Kaihau was definitely involved in creating the lyrics. Our loyal editor Chocmilk03 started this article about Maewa. You can now add your extra detail or re-use or misuse this article as long as you credit the original author or authors. This was an error that Maewa Kaihau is thought to have made. She claimed the music and lyrics as her own in 1928, but it is recognised today that she did make a major contribution. But you can judge for yourself. |
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Mona Williams | ||
| Guyanese–New Zealand-Jewish children's author |
Did you know that Mona Williams' 1995 biography, "Bishops: My Turbulent Colonial Youth", was named for her school? Mona Williams was born in 1943 and she attended Bishops' High School in Guyana. She was a black student, at a predominantly white colonial school, and she found this challenging. Later she experimented with writing to make some money and she found that she could not stop - a bit like our editor Chocmilk03 who shares her discovery of this interesting NZ storyteller who has an intriguing African and Jewish heritage. |
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Qian Xiuling | ||
| Chinese hero in Belgium |
Did You Know that a Chinese woman saved 100 Belgians from a firing squad? This is a really unusual story set in Belgium during World War II. The German army was shooting civilians as retribution after attacks or sabotage by the Belgian resistance. In one town, the local German commander had been a friend to Qian Xiuling, who was a Chinese scientist married to a local man. She used her friendship to appeal to the German General's humanity when nearly 100 Belgians were to die. The General was not allowed to disobey the order. The result was a TV series and this article. |
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Anália Franco | ||
| Brazilian school founder | Did You Know that few cared for the children of Brazilian slaves because they were free? The Brazilians decided that children born to Brazilian slaves would be free but they needed to be cared for until they were eight. Anália Franco was one of the few people who cared for them after they were abandoned as worthless in a country of slave-owners. Analia ended up starting schools. She wrote novels and plays and she founded 70 schools in 24 different Brazilian cities. Her legacy is described in her wiki article by our prolific contributor Roundtheworld. | .jpg)
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Zhang Ruifang | ||
| Chinese actress |
Did You Know that Zhang Ruifang has a really cool picture of her? Did we choose her just because of the picture? Well yes. She was on our Twitter page and she features on our project page every 15th June (on her birthday). To be honest this article was started before Women in Red started in 2015 but ten years ago it was a sentence and a table of films in Chinese. Over the decade we have learnt of her political struggles as she supported her country's politics. She helped to resist the invasion of the Japanese, she was imprisoned for a year, she ran a not-for-profit old people's home and she was awarded a lifetime achievement award for her work in films. |
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Anouk | ||
| Dutch singer |
Did You Know that Women in Red has an official anthem? The Dutch singer Anouk created a song called "It's a New Day" and during the video she changed her outfit and makeup lots of times as she sings while pretending to be the female icons of our culture. It was nominated by one of our leading Dutch editors called Jane023 and she has been with us over these ten years. The video makes me cry, but you judge for yourself. It's linked here and her Wikipedia article tells you about how well known she is in the Netherlands and about her 2013 Eurovision entry. |
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Sarah Margru Kinson | ||
| Sierra Leone student at Oberlin |
Did You Know that Sarah Margru Kinson from, what is now, Sierra Leone left as a slave and returned after gaining an education at Oberlin College? Oberlin College features as a pivotal point in many significant lives. The college was teaching black women when discrimination based on colour and gender was widespread. She was called Margru when she was enslaved, but serendipity saw her arrive in the USA with no owner. She returned to her homeland before setting out as a free woman to gain an American education. You can find out more about the case by watching Stephen Spielberg's film, but if you want the facts then read the Wikipedia article which Penny Richards started and is now in several languages. |
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Rosette Wolczak | ||
| French Jew |
Did You Know that Rosette Wolczak was sent to her death from Switzerland for immoral behaviour? Editing the lives of women gives our editors a new insight into history. Were the Swiss involved with the holocaust? Our editor, Nattes à chat, found out that after Rosette left France, she became a refugee in Switzerland. Switzerland was a safer place for Jewish children like Rosette to be during the war. However they were intolerant of immoral behaviour, so when Rosette was caught with a French boy and there were rumours of more impropriety, she was taken to the border. She spent less than a day at Auschwitz and her family did not learn her fate until after the war. |
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Sayragul Sauytbay | ||
| Chinese scientist | Did You Know that Sayragul Sauytbay told the world about the Xinjiang internment camps after she arrived from China? China denies her reports but she has been given significant awards and sanctuary in Sweden. There are denials that these camps exist but Wikipedia records this graph that shows the number of government contracts offered for re-education. | 
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Betsabeé Romero | ||
| Mexican visual artist | Did You Know that Betsabeé Romero created 103 trajineras decorated as memorial offerings for Mexico City's Day of the Dead? Betsabeé uses car tyres, old cars and boats as the basis of her art. Why? Well, you might find something in her biography started by our editor Mary Mark Ockerbloom. | 
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Fatima Denton | ||
| British-Gambian scientist | Did You Know that research by Fatima Denton suggests that new agricultural strategies are more readily adopted where young workers (ages 6–14) and female-headed households are involved? Yes, it appears that being female or young makes you more receptive to new ideas. However new ideas are still new ideas and I see that Fatima gave the Barbara Ward memorial lecture, which has been given by some really impressive women. The talks are organised by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and they publish Fatima's talk and dozens of others with a free license. Well done IIED! | The 10,000 Challenge
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Geraldine Chacón | ||
| Venezuelan lawyer | Did You Know that legal orders for the release of Geraldine Chacón, issued by the Venezuelan judicial system, were ignored by prison authorities? One of the pleasures of writing for Women in Red is to assist the work of organisations like Amnesty International. Amnesty argues that raising the profile of political prisoners and writing letters to the authorities can assist people who are being punished for speaking out. Some editors have to keep their identity secret, but others like Mary Mark Ockerbloom are able to take credit for the good work that she does. Well done Mary and her anonymous collaborators. | ||
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Catherine Flanagan | ||
| US suffragist |
Did You Know that Connecticut suffragist, Catherine Flanagan (pictured), was among the Silent Sentinels arrested for protesting outside the White House in 1917? So this is interesting. The US President told a group of suffragists that they needed to increase their public profile, so they decided to remain silently outside the White House while they waited for something to happen. They were noticed. They were eventually arrested for "unlawful assembly" and, like the British suffragists, for "obstruction". Catherine took her vacation so that she could be a silent sentinel for a while. She helped. |
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Güljamal | ||
| Teke tribal leader |
Did You Know that Güljamal (pictured in the centre), was a Teke tribal leader and the last independent Turkmen leader? "It's just a stub" they say about very short Wikipedia articles. All of the hundreds of thousands of biographies who were Women in Red. If you look at Güljamal's article and think "that's not enough" or "that's not quite right" or "I could do better than that" then maybe you need to press that edit button. Our editor Gamaliel is a librarian who creates stubs as well as longer articles and has been doing it for over twenty years. Want to write about Turkmenistan women too?... press the edit button. |
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Helen Nyirenda Kaunda | ||
| Malawian Zambian teacher |
Did You Know that Helen Nyirenda Kaunda (pictured), born in present-day Malawi, was the first African woman to teach in colonial Zambia? Hey Wikipedia never knew this! Helen came from Ekwendeni which was where Walter Angus Elmslie founded a mission in the 1880s and he brought William Koyi who was a teacher born and trained in what is now South Africa. As you edit you see insights that others may not have. Helen may well have met a black teacher named William Koyi who had the same first language as her. Helen and her husband went on to what became Zambia and she lived to see her son became President. |
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Humonya | ||
| Nongowa chieftain |
Did You Know that Humonya (pictured), chieftain of the Nongowa in Kenema in the Sierra Leone Colony and Protectorate (1908-1918), is remembered as the worst leader in Nongowa history? Gamaliel, a long-time creator of women's biographies and supporter of WiR, created this article. The women that we feature are not all inspirational activists. We have written about murderers, war criminals and sadists as well as bad and selfish leaders. Cue Humonya. |
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Bilikiss Adebiyi | ||
| Nigerian activist |
Did You Know that Bilikiss Adebiyi planned to collect rubbish in the streets of Nigeria while taking her MBA at MIT? WikiProject Nigeria have been a loyal supporter of fixing the gender gap. They ran an editathon to encourage more articles about Nigerian women and, as a result, Bilikiss appeared on Wikimedia's main page. This is a DYK by Victuallers and it described the Wecycles that Bilikiss created that travelled around Nairobi collecting recyclable plastic. See the photos - they are great. |
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Pia Arke | ||
| Greenlandic artist, writer, photographer | Did You Know that Pia Arke is remembered for her self-portraits and landscapes of Kalaallit Nunaat, as well as for her paintings and writings which strove to make visible the colonial, ethnic and cultural relations between Denmark and Greenland? This was one of the first DYKs for a Women in Red article. At that time, the project was developing what it called redlists which were lists created of all the women missing from Wikipedia. This wasn't hundreds of women, it was hundreds of lists. A list by country, by occupation and by name. User:Ipigott, who wrote this article, became known for keeping these lists in order. Over 300 editathons fed off these lists and, in time, versions of them appeared in other major languages for our sister projects. Pia built her own camera obscura which did not survive her. | 
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Tonny Zwollo | ||
| Dutch architect | Did You Know that Dutch architect Tonny Zwollo was featured in Life magazine for building 35 schools in Oaxaca, Mexico, and convincing the community to build them for free? This article was written by SusanW in 2015. SusanW has not only been a great supporter of Women in Red, but she started the project Women in Green. Women in Red finds ignored notable lives and creates an article, but not a "Good Article". Good Article is a level of quality that few articles achieve as it requires a great deal of time and dedication. The Women in Green project was founded to create high-quality articles about women... and they did. | 
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Fatima Hassouna | ||
| Palestinian photojournalist | Did You Know that Fatima Hassouna was killed shortly after a documentary about her was announced for the 2025 Cannes Film Festival? One of Wikipedia's aims is to share knowledge. Most of us do it from the comfort of an armchair as we chat about it to our mates. In some countries like Israel and Palestine that isn't possible. The BBC are not allowed to report from Gaza and they (and Wikipedia) have to rely on braver souls. Some say that the huge number of journalists killed is collateral damage but the consensus of Wikipedians does not support this view. Sadly we report on the death of journalists like Fatima and regret that there is no photograph of her that we are allowed to publish here. Sadly apt. | List of journalists killed in the Gaza war
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Nancy Ip | ||
| Hong Kong scientist | Did You Know that Nancy Ip found proteins which favour the growth and preservation of neurons in brain development? That sounds useful... Nancy was born in Hong Kong and, as well as her research, she has been a candidate to be a deputy. When she stood for election, she was the candidate who gathered the most votes. Nancy has had a successful career and you can read more about her work and maybe add some detail to explain her work concerning the growth, differentiation and synapses of neurons. | L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards
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Tsuneko Okazaki | ||
| Japanese scientist | Did You Know that the short DNA chains known as Okazaki fragments were discovered by Tsuneko Okazaki and some bloke she knew? Well, I say "some bloke" but it was actually her husband. They worked together until her husband died from the after-effects of the bomb at Hiroshima. She worked on in the United States where the discovery of Okazaki fragments was announced. | L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards
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B. Codanayaguy | ||
| Indian scientist | Did You Know that the solid fuel motors on Indian spacecraft are controlled by the rocket science of B. Codanayaguy? You will have heard of the Indian space industry. They put satellites into orbit, sometimes over a hundred at a time. I'm hoping that you don't imagine a group of men doing this work. The Indian government is particularly concerned about the advancement of women and they award the Nari Shakti Puraskar each year. It's an award that is eagerly awaited as it is awarded by the Indian President around International Women's Day. Importantly for Wikipedia, the images of the presentations are published with generous licences ... so we have a picture of B. Codanayaguy. | 
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Modesta Ávila | ||
| US hero | Did You Know that it has been suggested that Modesta Ávila, a Californio folklore heroine, is a possible identity for a ghost known as the "White Lady"? She died in San Quentin, her article records that she had made the mistake of not being European and not having the good sense to get married. She also made a fuss when the local railroad company ran a line 15 feet from her house. It's an interesting insight into what happens when you fail to do as you are told. Obviously ghosts don't exist, but Wiki reports on the rumours. | 
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Eunice Gibbs Allyn | ||
| US writer | Did You Know that Eunice Gibbs Allyn had to use various pen names as her brother did not wish to have a "bluestocking" in the family? You find out stuff. Did you know that the original blue stocking was a bloke? He was a clergyman who couldn't afford to wear fashionable black stockings so when he met a group of clever women he would wear his blue wool stockings - hence the name. The painting is of the "Nine Muses". It was created to show what the leading women of the day looked like. There was no photography and you couldn't get these nine women into the same room. The artist had to copy other paintings of them and arrange them in this painting. | 
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Irma Poma Canchumani | ||
| Peruvian environmental defender | Did You Know that the Peruvian environmental defender, Irma Poma Canchumani, is also a mate burilado artist? Yes, she carves these designs on gourds. She has been winning with her work since she was fourteen. She comes from a family who also carried on this tradition. | 
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Ólafía Jóhannsdóttir | ||
| Icelandic temperance leader | Did you know that Ólafía Jóhannsdóttir was an Icelandic temperance leader whose book De ulykkeligste (The Miserables) had a wide circulation? Persuading people to stop using alcohol (Temperance) was one of the big causes in several countries - including Iceland. The symbol was a white ribbon worn as a bow. Many of the women who were visible as leaders in suffrage were also involved in the abolition of slavery or temperance. | 
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Matilda Aku Alomatu | ||
| Ghanian ambassador | Did You Know that the International Atomic Energy Authority's Chair of governors used to be "Miss Ghana"? Beauty contests can give you a profile. Matilda moved on from being a beauty contestant to be a diplomat and, in time, an ambassador for Ghana. In 2025 she was the International Atomic Energy Authority's Chair of governors. Africa is a great focus for Wikipedia and for Women in Red. You realise that Women in Red has become notable when you wake up to find photos on Twitter (RIP) of an editathon in Ghana with all the editors wearing Women in Red T-shirts. We didn't have Women in Red T-shirts and we hadn't spoken to anyone in Ghana about the idea of having a Women in Red editathon. A member of the Wikipedia chapter had decided to organise an editathon, knowing (correctly) that they did not need "permission". All of our stuff is online and freely licensed. As Fatima Denton found out ... young female-led organisations appear to take up new ideas more quickly. Thank you Ghana. | 
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Madeleine Juneau | ||
| Quebecois nun | Did You Know that Madeleine Juneau was a Quebecois nun and also a museologist? For her exhibition, "The Canadian Horse, a breed apart", developed on the occasion of the 350th anniversary of the Canadian horse, the Governor General of Canada honoured her with the Governor General's History Award for Excellence in Museum Programs. | 
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Adelaida Ferré Gomis | ||
| Catalan historian | Did you know that Adelaida Ferré Gomis was a historian of lace-making in Catalonia? Catalonia is an area of Spain, France and Andorra and it was one of the first languages to have a Wikiproject that supported a language that was not the first language in any country. The resurgence of Catalonian culture has been notable and its support for the Catalan Wikipedia has been amazing. Women in Red has had close links with the Catalan editors and they have had their own support for creating a gender balance on that wiki too. Adelaida was interested in the Esperanto language ... and, yes, there is a wiki in that language too. | The Catalan Wikipedia
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Olena Stepaniv | ||
| Ukrainian army officer | Did You Know that Olena Stepaniv is said to be one of the first women in the 20th century to fight on equal terms with men? This article was written in the last few years as the subject of Ukrainian nationalism came into the news. Stepaniv claimed that she wore men's clothes to enable her to be accepted into a front-line unit. Lots of the Women in Red are the first woman to do something in this or that country. Sadly, there are still countries where women cannot undertake the simplest of tasks, but the good news is that in some countries, there are jobs that are no longer gendered. | 
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Helen Noble Curtis | ||
| Liberian activist | Did You Know that Helen served as a representative for Liberia? (and that some Wikipedia editors have really cool user names?) African American Helen Noble Curtis was discovered by Women in Red's honorary (aren't we all) Librarian in Residence. Her user name is MegaLibraryGirl which is apt. (We're not sure if Marvel or DC will be first to issue MegaLibraryGirl comics). Helen was a campaigner against lynching. She picked up on her fellow suffrage activists who were using racial stereotypes to help publicise the cause of votes for women. Racism and suffrage have had an unusual relationship in the USA. When Helen died, after a life as a leading activist, the New York Times headline was that her husband was a noted diplomat. | 
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Miriam Saphira | ||
| New Zealand activist | Did You Know that the Lesbian Museum in NZ was started by Miriam Saphira, who was an expert on children's understanding of sexual orientation? Miriam's article was written for one of our longer editathons. In 2024 our theme was "Education" and it was one of our most popular. Usually the only prize that our editors get is a thank you or occasionally we award each other with a virtual barnstar. Women in Red is unusual in having "real" barnstars which have been given for exceptional contributions. In 2024 we offered a first prize of a "real barnstar"... which is what is in the photograph. | Our 2024 "Education" editathon featured over 1,000 new articles (including Miriam)
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Jeya Wilson | ||
| Sri Lankan political activist | Did you know that Jeya Wilson is interesting, but she has no image to inspire on over 300 Wikipedias? I was hoping to find one ... but despite sending emails, there is no freely available photo of her. It's a pity as she was the second person of colour to hold her position at Oxford University. People talk about making sure that girls see people like them, but then they don't notice that every photo is copyright, so no one can legally use it without asking permission. And, as I've found out, you do not always get a reply. What chance does the average girl, who wouldn't speak English, have of getting permission? Jeya's story is there on Wikipedia... but no image! | ||
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Mary Aldis | ||
| NZ activist | Did You Know that "noted controversialist" Mary Aldis (depicted) tried to get Auckland City Council to stop a woman being fired from a cannon in 1887? What an interesting woman. She was told "Mrs. Aldis, all the bad men in Auckland hate you" which must have pleased her no end. The story about the cannon featured on Wikipedia's main page and it gained thousands of reads. The Did You Know section was the place where the founders of "Women in Red" (virtually) met. It was a place where too few women featured, but during Women's History Month, our editors got involved with Did You Know and encouraged the section to show a bias towards women to partially mitigate the normal bias caused by the historic gender bias of Wikipedia. What would happen if we didn't just do it during women's history month? In 2016 He Xiangning led the list of women DYK hooks on International Women's Day. That day? that month? we did it all year? Hence, Women in Red. | "Did You Know" 
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Titiou Lecoq | ||
| French writer | Did You Know that Titiou Lecoq (pictured) only realized that "women did not rule the universe" after she left home? New articles are featured on the main page of the English Wikipedia where they appear for a few hours. Articles mentioned there get thousands of clicks and the best ones get tens of thousands of hits. The article about Titiou Lecoq got the most hits for an article about a woman with the hook about her leaving home. And if you have ever wondered what "Women in Red" is in French ... it's "Les sans pagEs". The French Wikipedia is one of the top Wikipedias in terms of size. | 
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Haydée Tamzali | ||
| Tunisian screenwriter | Did You Know that the first film made by Tunisians in Tunisia was written by a teenager? Haydée Tamzali's dad made films but he not only chose to use his daughter as the lead but also used her script about a girl who survives a shipwreck. The film was shot with Tunisian extras who find and befriend her. The The 1922 film has been restored. In real life Haydée led charitable organisations and she wrote short stories and a cookbook... and when she was about 90, she appeared in another film. | 
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Maud Younger | ||
| US labour activist | Did You Know that even though Maud's mum was an heiress, she chose to work as a waitress? Nice picture of Maud Younger. Women in Red collects these pictures. Every month we collect all of the pictures of the women in the articles on Pinterest. They do not look like models or actresses or even the beautified selfies you can see on Instagram or Facebook. The women in our articles look like your mum, your cousin, your bus driver or your waitress. The notable women on Wikipedia are not there because of their looks, they are the ambitious, the clever and the good as well as the devious and the evil. Have a click on the link below and see what we mean. Or find out more about Maud... who worked as a waitress so she could join and influence their union. What was she campaigning for? The answer is now a click away. | Pinterest sample
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Isabel Zendal | ||
| Spanish nun/nurse | Did You Know that a Spanish King sent a couple of dozen orphans to Ecuador accompanied by Isabel whose job was to keep them ill? She's famous in Spain where there are statues, streets, hospitals and a pharmaceutical company with her name. She led a few women whose job was to take the smallpox vaccine to South America. There were no petri dishes or fridges as it the early 1800s. She's the first woman to join an expedition, we think. The cure for smallpox is cowpox and the way chosen to keep it alive was to keep the orphan boys infected. It's only a mild disease, but while they have it, it's alive and it was bound to save a smallpox epidemic in Columbia and Ecuador. We created this article during our 58th editathon. | Women in Red Healthcare editathon
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Viscountess Harberton | ||
| British cyclist | Did You Know that pubs would only serve women if their clothing was irrational? Women took to cycling and other sports realizing that this required what was called "rational dress". Florence Wallace Pomeroy, Viscountess Harberton "hit the national headlines as she protested about a pub that refused to serve her. The result was possibly not what had been intended by the clothing ban. The publicity led to more women's cycling groups, and the case was a milestone on the road to female emancipation". Viscountess Harberton's biography was written as part of an on-line editathon. Women in Red have organised over 300 of these over the ten years of its existence. Florence Wallace Pomeroy's article was written for the 65th editathon which focused on Women in Fashion. 13 editors wrote an article a day for a month. Her article is available in several languages. | Record of Women in Red's 65th editathon
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Quarraisha Abdool Karim | ||
| South African scientist | Did You Know that every year the leading woman scientist, on each continent, is given an award? The Women in Science award is organised by UNESCO and L'Oreal. Professor Karim is from South Africa and she won the award in 2016 for her work on HIV/AIDS. She is also remarkable because we have an image of her. UNESCO and L'Oreal both aim to publicise women scientists but they then copyright the images of them so they cannot be used - except on their web site in their chosen language. | L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards | |
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Emma Chapman | ||
| British scientist | Did You Know that leading scientist Emma Chapman was given a prize for shouting out about sexual predators? Emma was one of the first 270 women scientists that Jess Wade chose to highlight with a biography on Wikipedia. She went to an editathon and realised that although there were not enough women scientists being recognised, she could do something about it. In addition to being a successful physicist, Jess decided to write a biography every day. Emma was given the Athena Prize and Jess's awards included a British Empire Medal. Jess joined Women in Red in 2018 and she has written over 2,000 biographies and nearly all of them are not blokes. | Jess Wade's New Article list
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Sue (dinosaur) | ||
| US palaeontologist | Did You Know that Sue is a dinosaur but we aren't? It was said that you needed to be a woman to write about woman. We argued that Wikipedia had lots of articles about dinosaurs, but very few of our editors are dinosaurs. When Twitter was a place where nearly everyone had a page, then Women in Red also had a page with over 12,000 followers. Our virtual mates were there and we would change our banner every day to highlight a different woman. Hundreds were featured but it was Sue who got the most attention, confirming that we were happy for people of any gender (or species) to write articles about women. | Twitter (RIP)
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Jane Elizabeth Waterston | ||
| Scottish medical missionary | Did You Know that a Scottish Doctor who went to be a missionary in Africa was told that she was there because she was "husband hunting"? There is an emerging interest in the women in Malawi. Research has turned up women like Janet S. Beck who left Edinburgh to serve as a teacher in Blantyre for thirty years, funded by her sisters. During that research, Jane was rediscovered. She had tried to work at the Blantyre mission but she was accused of "husband hunting". She was a qualified doctor. She went back to the Lovedale Missionary Institute in South Africa, where other missionaries to Malawi (like Xhosa William Koyi) were trained. | Lovedale Missionary Institute
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Mary Grew | ||
| US abolitionist | Did You Know that Mary, who travelled 1000s of miles to represent US abolitionists, was told not to speak because she was a woman? Mary was a leader in the abolition of the slavery movement in Philadelphia. The British Anti-Slavery movement planned to hold a world convention in London in 1840. They sent out invitations for delegates and they later issued a correction as they had not meant delegates but male delegates. The Americans decided to send male and female delegates, including Mary Grew. This caused a real hoohaw on the first day as the male delegates debated whether they would accept women. Some, including Mary's father, argued that men were more important and the Bible supported this. A fellow American argued that all the bibles should be burned if that was the case. When the vote was taken these liberals, who had met to improve global equality, decided to allow women to observe at a distance but not to speak. Two of the delegates vowed that they needed to sort out women's rights once slavery was sorted out - this was the birth of the US suffrage movement. The painting of the anti-slavery convention did include a few women... but not Mary Grew... or her father. Mary was later included in the amazing book titled A Woman of the Century (meaning the 19th century). | 
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Rachel Hamilton | ||
| Scottish police officer | Did You Know that 6 foot 4 inch Big Rachel policed the riots in Glasgow? Big Rachel was an early police recruit in Glasgow. She was 6 feet 4 inches tall and she was asked to help during the Partick riots. The disturbance was created when Irish people celebrated their history. Rachel is one of the characters celebrated by Glasgow Women's Library which has been a supporter of our project. | Glasgow Women's Library
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Kate Marsden | ||
| British explorer | Did You Know that the woman who crossed continents to find a cure for malaria was lauded in Siberia and cancelled back in Britain? Kate was an explorer who was lauded for her deeds and destroyed by her sexuality. She was backed by Queen Victoria to find a cure for malaria. The Queen listened to Kate, who told her that she had heard that there was a plant in Siberia that cured malaria. Victoria's cousin arranged for her to travel across Russia before there was a road or a railway. Kate wrote up her story as she went and it was published in the British press. She travelled across the world by sledge and returned to find that she had gone from hero to zero. An American rival had fanned rumours that she was a lesbian. Oscar Wilde was being lynched by the British press for his sexuality, so she retired. When Kate died, the museum that she had founded refused to accept a portrait of her. | Women explorers are rare
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Lorina Bulwer | ||
| British diarist and abuse survivor | Did You Know that embroidery discovered in attics revealed who had sexually abused Lorina 100 years before? Lorina was a British woman thrown in a workhouse when she was old and confused. This was where she became a needleworker. The needlework she created were long expressionist samplers which document her anger and indignation during that time in her life. The descriptions of her abuse have enabled her doctor to be named as her abuser. The needlework was discovered in attics and sales and now features in a museum in Norwich. We celebrate the birth of many women, but on March 5 we remember Lorina. | 
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Nokutela Dube | ||
| South African freedom activist | Did You Know that Nokutela did not have children and that is why she was long dead before she was recognised for helping to found the ANC? Nokutela took a long time to be recognised as a South African hero. She was taught at Ohlange High School which had been founded so that there could be the wives for (male) Black Africans educated by missionaries. Nokutela married and she and her husband founded the ANC. However they did not have children and her husband cast her aside. Nelson Mandela chose to cast his first vote at her school. She was awarded the Order of the Golden Baobab, 100 years after she died. | Ohlange High School
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Adela Pankhurst | ||
| British Australian suffragette | Did You Know that Adela is possibly the forgotten Pankhurst, at least that was her mother's plan? It was Adela who co-founded the terrorist branch of the British suffragettes. Her Young Hot Bloods had explosives and they were expert arsonists. She was recorded in the arboretum which was the memorial to the leading suffragettes, before her mother and sister gave her a one-way ticket to Australia. That didn't quieten her, she went on to be a leading communist and a leading fascist. The mugshot photo shows just some of the suffragettes that the UK police were to look out for. | Young Hot Bloods _Olive_Leared_(née_Hockin)_Margaret_McFarlane_Mary_Wyan_et_al.jpg)
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Jessie Kenney | ||
| English suffragette | Did You Know that they bulldozed a memorial that was created for all the leading suffragettes, including this bomb planner? The leading UK suffragettes were nearly all toffs. The exception was the Kenney family. Annie Kenney has recently had a statue, but Jessie Kenney was the one with the plan for bombs. | Eagle House (suffragette's rest) 
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Jane Cakebread | ||
| UK alcoholic | Did You Know that Jane Cakebread set a record for number of newspaper paragraphs devoted to a woman during the reign of Queen Victoria, besides the queen herself? Women alcoholics were a problem in the US and in the UK and prison sentences did not seem to be a solution. Lady Mary Somerset was inspired by the American approach and the temperance society backed her idea of a place where these women could recover. She founded the Duxhurst Industrial Farm Colony and the law was amended to allow courts to direct inebriate women to the colony instead of to jail. | Duxhurst Industrial Farm Colony
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Mary Jane Clarke | ||
| UK suffragette martyr | Did You Know that the first suffragette martyr was Emmeline Pankhurst's sister? Suffrage was a big subject for WIR that we devoted over a year to and it gathered a lot of interest. We also held editathons at the Pankhurst Centre in Manchester where the suffragettes were founded. The centre mentions Emmeline, Christina and Sylvia but not so much Richard and Alena. Now Emmeline was born Emmeline Gould and it was her mother and her bloke who inspired her. So, who was the first martyr to the suffrage cause? It was Emmeline's sister whose married name was Mary Jane Clarke. She was arrested and force-fed and she died just after she was released. It is unclear why her death did not receive the same attention as Emily Davison who was killed by the King's racehorse. A statue is planned for Mary in Brighton. | .jpg)
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Harriet Henderson | ||
| Scottish missionary | Did You Know that you can die as a missionary together with your brother and your husband, but when they are counting "Martyrs of Blantyre" then it's only the blokes that are remembered? What do we mean by "Women in Red" ... we mean those missing from the record. The picture here is of Harriet Henderson who, like her brother and her husband, went out to a mission in Malawi. She and her child died, but so did her brother and husband. The blokes have a plaque in the local church and a book written about them called "Martyrs of Blantyre". Her husband was the only one mentioned on Wikipedia. Harriet is included now - but sadly there is not enough (yet) to justify her own article. | Hero of Blantyre?
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Mary Miss | ||
| US artist | Did You Know that Wikipedia doesn't include everyone who is amazing (like you?) Wikipedia profiles women who have been widely featured in other notable sources like leading newspapers, academic papers and international prize citations. How do you become a "Women in Red" ... and then get your own article? We can't make someone notable and no one is interested in whether one Wikipedian or another thinks that someone "should be on" Wikipedia. Wikipedia has evolved a concept called notability. Marie Curie has lots of it, but what of her daughter, her mother and her aunt? We rely on a person being featured in a notable book, newspaper or, in this case, an exhibition. One curator in New York decided to create an exhibition for women artists who had never had their own exhibition. Maybe they were "wives of" or "part-time artist" and maybe they had been overlooked in the shadow of another artist. Mary Miss was included in the 1971 Twenty Six Contemporary Women Artists exhibition by Lucy R. Lippard - a champion of Feminist Art. | Twenty Six Contemporary Women Artists
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Evelyn Dove | ||
| British singer | Did You Know that Evelyn was known for being a BBC radio singer - and for being black? The BBC have been leaders in encouraging diversity. In one year they invited Women in Red to their studios, not only in London in other countries too. WIR met other leading women including Emmeline Pankhurst's granddaughter who invited us to do an editathon and Carol Black who had us sitting at the top table of a Cambridge University College. We also met Viscountess Bridgeman whose company lost the noted court case which allows Wikipedia to function. The BBC have had deaf and blind people winning dance competitions, presenters with facial disfigurements and many years ago, they had the first black woman on the radio. Partnering over the years with UNESCO, at the UN, and in a range of different countries has been brilliant. | 
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Seema Rao | ||
| Indian wonder woman | Did You Know that some call Seema Rao, a beauty contestant and commando, "a wonder woman"? Nari Shakti Puraskar is an award given to women by the President of India and we have featured many of these prize winners. We are assisted by the government of India because they openly license all of the images created by the central government. Articles that have photographs are read more often. As an editor, I can tell you that women who have a photo available are much more likely to inspire me to write their article. Sources that you might think would be very supportive like UN Women and UNESCO copyright nearly all of their images. So that many of the people they photograph are only available to their employees. Whereas other sources like the World Intellectual Property Organisation, NASA and the US government share their photographers' work freely. | Nari Shakti Puraskar
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Hyuro | ||
| Argentinian artist | Did You Know the Argentinian Hyuro painted huge murals including women without faces? Hyuro was a muralist and graffiti artist from Argentina known for large murals that she created in different countries. It's not a very precise photo of her but that is very apt. Her murals are known for women without faces and her themes include gender-based violence and the people who died as a result of abortion. One of her last works was a mural depicting a car covered in a green sheet. | 
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Arnaq | ||
| Inuit explorer | Many know the name of one of the blokes who "discovered" the land of the Inuits, but who knows the name of the Inuit woman who "discovered" London? Arnaq may have chosen to have become famous. She lived in the far north when she discovered that strange people had come to her country. She went with them back to England where she was widely known for being a person from the far north. | Women who died
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Catherine Denguiadé | ||
| Central African empress | Did You Know that there were two Empresses named Catherine? You maybe have an idea of who the famous empresses are. You may remember Josephine, Queen Victoria and Catherine the Great but there was another Catherine. This one became an Empress of the Central African Empire and now lives in Geneva. The country where she lived is landlocked in central Africa. It's a poor country and it is known for her and her husband's excesses. About five million people live there but very few and even less African women make it into Wikipedia - hence a Women in Africa editathon... | Women in Africa
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Madame Clicquot Ponsardin | ||
| French entrepreneur | Did You Know that, as a 27-year-old widow, Clicquot invented a champagne technique... and a business empire? Seems appropriate to have champagne if we are celebrating. July 2025 is Women in Red's tenth anniversary and we have also just broken the 20% women on the English Wikipedia. It gets harder to increase the percentage of women, although there is some evidence that the new articles arriving about living people are becoming more balanced. | 
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Isatou Nyang | ||
| Gambian athlete | Did You Know that Isatou, who represented Gambia at the Paralympics, went back to beg on the streets? When not being a Paralympian flag carrier, she begs on the streets of the Gambia. Isatou was born with badly formed legs and a competitive spirit. She was chosen to compete on behalf of her country when there was a Paralympics. She went to London and for a few weeks she experienced the global extravaganza that was the 2012 Paralympics where many people changed their view about people with disabilities. Isatou returned to Gambia. She dreamed that she might be chosen again but in the meantime she survived as do other people with disabilities in Gambia by begging. Big shout out for the Paralympics. They make people notable ... we just write about them. | .svg){kind=logo}
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Carmen Juares | ||
| Honduran emigrant | Did You Know that Carmen was almost a slave for five years in Spain before she addressed the crowd? Carmen became a near slave in Spain after she arrived from Honduras. For five years she cared for someone's elderly relative in Spain. She worked long and immoral hours and the country's laws and expectations of workers' rights were ignored. She exposed the abuses and addressed crowds to reveal the injustice and exploitation of migrants in Catalonia. She studied and led a strike of dark supermarket delivery drivers. | 1DAY1WOMAN
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Temwani Chilenga | ||
| Malawian carer | Did You Know that it was Voice of America who profiled how Temwani cares for dozens of orphan children? The Voice of America has been an important source of information and images. It was set up by the US government as an independent entity to deliver unbiased news. Senators tried unsuccessfully to influence its approach, but it was not until 2025 that President Trump placed its 1,300 employees on leave. Up to that date it was seen as a reliable source of information. | Voice of America
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Tina Stege | ||
| South sea islander politician | Did You Know that Tina Stege argues for the very survival of her country? She has the unenviable job of arguing for her country about climate change. She knows that if she fails she may not have a country as the Marshall Islands are barely above the surface of the ocean at the moment. We have had a year-long editathon on climate change, but Tina was added when we had an editathon concentrating on Oceania. The photos did not come from the COP28 meeting where she was present. Oddly the climate movement copyright all their images. Is it to stop people talking about it? | Women in Oceania
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Leopoldine Kulka | ||
| Austrian pacifist | Did You Know that during WW1 there were meetings of women to try and agree a peace as millions fought and lost their lives? Although some women were out giving white feathers to men who refused to fight there were others who demanded peace and an end to the pointless aggression. These women were all encouraged not to attend international meetings to discuss peace. Kulka was a delegate from Austria for peace in 1915. The women's peace movement continued and is still a pressure group at the United Nations. | Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
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Agnes Patemba | ||
| Malawian judge | Did You Know that a judge who announced the overturning of a Presidential election, wore a bullet proof vest? If you think that is amazing then we find it even more remarkable that she did not have a Wikipedia article. There were five judges that were asked to decide whether a Presidential election had been rigged. This is in a country that is known for its corruption. The stakes were high. The candidate who had allegedly been placed in second place had spent about nine million pounds on legal fees. Security at the court was tight and the judges arrived in bulletproof vests. The election was declared null and void and another was ordered. After the second election, the result was the opposite of the first. This was the first time this had ever happened in Africa. All the judges including Kamanga were give the Chatham House Award for upholding the constitution and democracy. Agnes Patemba was the judge who decided the costs of the case. | Chatham House Prize
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Malebogo Molefhe | ||
| Motswana survivor of domestic violence | Did You Know that people need to be reminded that beating up your partner is not OK? The International Women of Courage Award is announced each year by the American Secretary of State. Malebogo was one of the women proposed by US embassies and these have been the basis of many new articles. Malebogo Molefhe was a basketball player and a victim of gender-based violence. Her boyfriend shot her eight times and she decided to use her experience to reinforce the idea that GBV is unacceptable. | International Women of Courage Award
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Claire Ouedraogo | ||
| Burkina Faso nun | Did You Know that in some countries girls are disfigured by their nearest and dearest? FGM is a tradition in many countries. Mothers have considered it as part of their duty to arrange for their daughters to be surgically modified. They don't call it mutilation, but we do. Claire lives in Burkina Faso where she is a nun, and she has made it her job to try and transform her country to be a place where girls are not disfigured by their nearest and dearest. Every International Women's Day the US Secretary of State gives a small number of awards to courageous women from around the world. Their stories are told and photos are taken and freely shared. This has been a great source of role-model articles of women from all over the world. | International Women on Courage
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Deolinda Rodrigues | ||
| Angolan revolutionary | Did You Know that the Angolan revolutionary, Deolinda Rodrigues, was a pen pal of Martin Luther King Jr. ? Deolinda was the co-founder of an Organization of Angolan Women as part of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Azawad. Martin Luther King told her "Some one person or some few persons must stand as a symbol for your independence movement". She became part of a Guerrilla unit and died where fighting and she is a "symbol for [her] independence movement" - The date of her death is commemorated as the day of Angolan women. Her legacy included a book, a movie, and a vandalised statue. | People's Movement for the Liberation of Azawad
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Maria Lauder | ||
| US temperance campaigner | Did You Know that the six-millionth Wikipedia article was a biography written for Women in Red? Maria Lauder campaigned against alcoholic drink - Temperance was a popular women's movement in many countries notably in the US and the UK. Dozens of articles were written about these thought leaders and this Canadian leaders inspired an article that received some extra attention. It was the six millionth article on the English Wikipedia. It was some years ago, the rate of new articles has slowed down and it has only recently tripped to seven million. That has assisted us in catching up with the number of blokes included in the early drafts of Wikipedia. Wikipedia had a better percentage of women when it started, than its paper-based competitors, but we wanted more. In 2025 the percentage reached 20% women. | Woman's Christian Temperance Union
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Bertha Palmer | ||
| US organiser | Did You Know that Bertha Palmer was the President of the Board of Lady Managers who oversaw the creation, building, and interior decoration of a Woman's Building at the 1883 World's Columbian Exposition? They didn't have a vote, but in 1883 a group of women in America were allowed to not only build a special building but to fill it with items of their choice. Thousands would have seen the building and its contents and now you too can appreciate what they created. | The Woman's Building (Chicago)
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Ulanda Mtamba | ||
| Malawian Rotarian | Did You Know that three American celebrities visited Ulanda in Malawi? The BBC have an announcement each year of their 100 most inspiring women from across the world. This has been a rich source of candidates for new articles and we've written 100s. One year we were invited to the BBC and got to meet some more leading women. In 2024 they chose Melinda French, Amal Clooney and Michelle Obama and the three of them had been to Malawi and met another laureate named Ulanda Mtamba. She was a campaigner to increase the access of girls to education in a country where finishing primary school is only a possibility. Ulanda like Roger was a member of Rotary but we could not arrange a photo of her because the photo licensing required is both trivial and counterintuitive. | 100 Women (BBC) | |
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Paulina Irby | ||
| British founder of schools in Serbia | Did You Know that after being accused of supporting a dissident Serbian group she decided to change her allegiance? Paulina and her mate were travelling in Serbia when they were arrested. The authorities accused them of supporting a movement opposed to the government. They were released when it was realised that they knew nothing about this group. Once released however they went to find out more. Her mate went off to marry into the British nobility, but Paulina stayed in Serbia and founded the first of what would be seventy girls schools. She became a hero in Serbia and streets are named in her honour. How do you find these women? Better than that there is a list of notable Serbian women writers, women artists ... and if you can't find a list... then remember... anyone can edit. | Paulina's grave in Sarajevo 
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Eunice Newton Foote | ||
| US scientist | Did You Know Eunice's discoveries and inventions included the Greenhouse effect? Difficult to believe that I didn't know the name of this scientist. She not only discovered the greenhouse effect, decades before it became a problem, but she even pointed out that it could be. This article is one of the finest on Wikipedia. We need many more women scientists. Jess Wade has done a lot and there is a WikiProject named Women Scientists. Let's hope we discover more women like Eunice - they may be able to figure out what we can do after we ignored Eunice's discovery. Who was Eunice? See our article. | 
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Ida Mae Thompson | ||
| US suffragist | Did You Know that the influence of the Works Progress Administration is still a benign influence on our work at Wikipedia? One of the women who kept the US suffrage movement going, Ida Mae Thompson stands in the shadows of Lila Meade Valentine and Adele Goodman Clark. Tasked by WPA to do research, she assembled quite a history of the Virginia suffrage movement by contacting people she knew and asking them to look for documents. | Equal Suffrage League of Virginia | |
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Mary Schäffer Warren | ||
| Canadian botanical artist | Did You Know that the Mary Schäffer boat on Lake Jasper is named for the woman who made the lake part of a national park? American-Canadian naturalist, illustrator, photographer, and writer, Warren traveled the Canadian Rockies in the early 20th century. Her photographs and botanical illustrations are a lasting legacy. | 
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Lucinda Hinsdale Stone | ||
| US philanthropist | Did You Know that the first women's organisation in the USA to build their own building was Lucinda Hinsdale Stone's Ladies' Library Association of Kalamazoo? Stone was an educator and philanthropist. She helped organise the first woman's club in Michigan, the Ladies' Library Association of Kalamazoo. The Ladies Library Association Building was built in 1879. It still stands and is still occupied by the Ladies' Library Association of Kalamazoo. | 
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Mildred Rackley | ||
| US artist | Did You Know that the mid-century artists' group, the National Serigraph Society, had many women members? Researching this organization provided a starting point for several biographical articles on notable women artists. Rackley was an American print maker. She was a member of the Artists Union and created prints and sketches for the Works Progress Administration. She was a volunteer who served in Spain in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade during the Spanish Civil War. | .jpg)
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Maggie L. Walker | ||
| US banker | Did You Know that Maggie L. Walker first African-American woman to serve as a bank president? She lived in Richmond, Virginia and a statue of her is on the grounds of the Virginia state capitol as part of the Virginia Women's Monument. | 
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Judith Thurman | ||
| US biographer and journalist | Did You Know that the woman who had the "Out of Africa" idea didn't have a Wikipedia article until 2020? Judith Thurman wrote the biography of Isak Dinesen which won the 1983 National Book Award for Nonfiction. Her book was the basis of the 1985 movie, but it was another 15 years before someone wrote her bio. The article started as an 1,822 bytes stub and the current size is 21,996 bytes with contributions from over 20 editors... and a thousand people read her article every day! | 
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Elizabeth Hetherwick | ||
| Scottish missionary | Did You Know that aggrieved locals demanded that Elizabeth Hetherwick be handed over after her first husband was justifiably beheaded? Possibly one of the most interesting lives. Elizabeth was a teenage orphan when well-wishers paid for her to be a missionary following the lead of David Livingstone and Mary Moffat. She married a cruel and arrogant man who was sacked as a missionary and then as an elephant hunter. After he murdered a local chief his head appeared on a pole. His goods and Elizabeth were demanded in reparation. In time she remarried and she was the leading woman at the mission in Blantyre. | _May_Hetherwick_(below)_Mrs_Hetherwick_(bottom_right).jpg)
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Florence Baker | ||
| Hungarian explorer | Did You Know that the African Explorer Lady Florence Baker began her adventures when she was sold as a slave in Hungary? One of the sources for Wikipedia is the Dictionary of National Biography that was created by Virginia Woolf's dad. Before Women in Red started, an editing drive had focused on creating a Wikipedia entry for every woman in this Edwardian? and out-of-copyright publication. Meanwhile, a decision had been made to refresh the DNB and to add new entries to create the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Would it be possible for Wikipedia to also include these women too? In 2015 the work began and one of the first additions was Lady Florence Baker. Basically, she had been seized by an admirer after he saw her for sale. They went off to Africa where they explored and documented new "discoveries". When they returned, they married but Florence was never received by the Queen because she had slept with her husband before their marriage. Her biography is now in over 20 languages... including Hungarian! | Dictionary of National Biography
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Olga Lander | ||
| Soviet documentary photographer and journalist | Did You Know that Olga Lander's camera required her to work close to the dangerous wartime subjects she photographed? Yes, a Russian, and her biography is here in English but it's also available in Bashkir, Czech, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish and of course Russian. She was a wartime photographer and we have not only her story but her photographs as well. They have been released by the Russian International News Agency (RIA Novosti) who have been released lots of images. Want to find out more? Well, you can as she is no longer a "Women in Red". | .jpg)
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Marie Meyer (aviator) | ||
| US aviator | Did You Know that Marie Meyer's aerobatic stunts included standing on the upper wing of a biplane while it looped-the-loop (pictured)? | 
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Josephine Silone Yates | ||
| African American scientist | Did You Know that Josephine Silone Yates was the first black woman to head a college science department in the United States? She was a major figure in the African-American women's club movement and she became the National Organisation's second president. | African-American women's club movement
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Rachel Brem | ||
| US scientist | Did You Know that Rachel Brem discovered a tumour in her own breast while testing ultrasound equipment for her hospital? That's what she does... she develops new ways of finding breast tumours. She appears in lists of American "top doctors". She is of Jewish descent and because of her heritage she is more likely than most people to develop breast cancer. Our editor, Mary Mark Ockerbloom, came across her on the (American) Public Broadcasting Service which, like Rachel (and Wikipedia), aims to improve the distribution of information. So PBS Woohoo! | 
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Bettye Washington Greene | ||
| African American scientist | Did You Know that Bettye Washington Greene was the first African American female Ph.D. chemist to work in a professional position at the Dow Chemical Company, where she researched latex and polymers? | Oklahoma Women in science edit-a-thon
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Carolyn Parker | ||
| African American scientist | Did You Know that Carolyn Parker was one of the few African-American scientists and technicians on the Manhattan Project? Long before African American women scientists were being de-valued by NASA, Carolyn was working on the Manhattan Project during WWII. The photograph shown is of the first explosion. It is the only good colour photo of Trinity. | African-American scientists and technicians on the Manhattan Project
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Other nominations
Still working on the cut. Those below are American or those without a picture. They are all great articles.
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