Mediaboss Marketing

Guinness has partnered with Wikimedia UK in a bid to tackle the lack of representation of women in sport.

As part of the brands Never Settle campaign, the pair will work together to ensure that every member of the competing home nation squads for this years Womens Six Nations Finals Weekend is properly recorded on Wikipedia.

Guinness has highlighted the fact that only 6% of sports media coverage in the UK is dedicated to female athletes and teams, with ust 18% of all biographies on Wikipedia of women. Indeed, the brand says the gap widens further in sport where just 3% of 14,916 rugby related biographies are of female players. The current Guinness Six Nations mens squads have 392% more words devoted to them than their female counterparts.

The brand also points out that only 30% of the current Womens Six Nation squad players have a presence on Wikipedia at all, while of those who did, some 86% didnt have an image or more than a very basic biography.

In addition, the international team pages see a stark disparity across the mens and womens games, with the current male rugby squads receiving more than 9,000 words on their page, whereas the womens teams have on average just 900.

In order to tackle the inequality, Guinness has invited Wikipedia editors, womens rugby fans, writers, and journalists to take part in the campaign, adding to the stories of past and present personalities.

The brand says it is also working with players on a global scale to update their Twitter profiles, ensuring they are in line with the new verification standards. According to Guinness, this will provide female players with the same platform to build connections with their fans, and will also help to improve and increase conversation about the players and the sport globally.

In the last twelve months, out of the 307,541 tweets mentioning rugby or the six nations globally, only 10% of those were about the womens game.

Were delighted to be partnering with GUINNESS for this project, to shine a light on womens rugby players and their achievements, said Lucy Crompton-Reid, CEO, Wikimedia UK.

As the UK charity for the global Wikimedia movement, we are well aware of the gender gap online which reflects systemic bias and historical inequalities and are working with a wide range of partners to increase the representation of women on Wikipedia.

Neil Shah, Head of Guinness GB added: We know its hard to be what you cant see. We believe the first step in increasing the visibility for womens rugby players in line with the mens game is spotlighting who they are this step will make getting to know them easier than ever by bringing their stories to Wikipedia.

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Guinness and Wikipedia to tackle rugby gender disparity - Sport Industry Group