Event:EiffelWomen

Did you know that the names of 72 men of science were inscribed onto the Eiffel Tower when it was built? But despite the structure acquiring the nickname la Dame de Fer (The Iron Lady), not a single woman of science was included on the list...not even Sophie Germain, whose earlier mathematical research into the elasticity of metals played a key role in the engineering calculations needed for the metal structure.

In 2025, the then mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, named a commission of experts to look at a project to add the names of women in STEM onto the Eiffel Tower. The response was positive and l'Association Femmes & Sciences was tasked with preparing a list of 72 women scientists to be commemorated.^[1] The proposed names were revealed in January 2026 and are awaiting approval by the mayor, the Académie des Sciences, the Académie des Technologies and the Académie nationale de médecine.^[2]^[3]

At the time of the announcement, 25 of the named women didn't have an English language Wikipedia page, and some of the existing pages left something to be desired...

There is now a page for each woman in both French and English but there are still improvements needed, images to source and translations to be made into other languages. A number of English language pages are needed for some of their places of education and employment, as well as for other notable female colleagues. Not to mention linking the women to their male colleagues, their name pages, professional pages etc and getting them into the correct categories.

The Eiffel Women project is timed to end with Wiki Mania in Paris in July this year - the 72 names won't be on the Eiffel Tower quite yet (2027 has been suggested), but we can make sure that they are on wiki and looking good!

72 women proposed for the Eiffel Tower

How to prepare

Create a Wikipedia account – you need one to register for this event!
Sign up at the Dashboard https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/Wikimedia_UK/Eiffel_Women_Campaign_2026_(May_to_July_2026) Go to the Articles tab, then click Available Articles to see the list and what their ratings currently are. You can assign yourself articles from the list if you want to.

Pick a topic you want to work on - improving one or more of the pages of the 72 women in the list above or take a look at the ever growing GoogleDoc to link the Eiffel Tower 72 to their places of work or education, their colleagues, friends, family and name pages. Some of the places the women trained at don't have pages in English if you fancy a go at a translation.
Translation into other languages is also an option.

Outcomes - will be regularly updated until end of July 2026

See the articles tab at top of page for full edits list.

New articles on en-wiki (in alphabetic order)

Isabelle Vauglin

This project started in May 2026

Femmes et Sciences - it will be on Did You Know (DYK) on 29th July.

Internat des hôpitaux de Paris

Nathalie Drach-Temam (4,000 views at DYK).

Prix Joliot-Curie

Improvements (summary)

As of 18 June, 42 of the 72 women's biographies were rated by ORES (or Rater) as B class or higher and the other 30 were at ORES-rated C class. Improvement work is still ongoing and there are some pages which could potentially be brought to Good Article status. A big thank you to all editors who have contributed so far, and particular thanks to @Ipigott: and @Victuallers: for their sterling efforts.

Thanks to further improvements, today it looks as if 57 of the 72 have now reached ORES GA recommendation. We still need to try to improve the 15 others.--Ipigott (talk) 11:05, 9 July 2026 (UTC)

Editathon 20 June 2026

Participants from France, Nigeria, Portugal and UK, including a descendant of one of the 72 women.

EiffelWomen at Wikimania (20-25 July 2026)

Lightning talk

A lightning talk about the project - The 72 women of the Eiffel Tower – inspiration for translations and beyond - will be part of the Community Lightning talk series I at Wikimania in Paris on 22 July 2026.

The lightning talk (apparently not more than five minutes) on the 22nd looks interesting. Perhaps this should also be posted on the main talk pages of Women in Red and Women in Green. As it's in Paris, maybe you will be making the presentation yourself, Roger, perhaps together with MumphingSquirrel. I expect Rosie will be presenting the poster. If there's a slide show, it would be interesting to post it too.

Thanks Ipigott, I'm not at Wikimania, the tickets went ridiculously fast. Rosie and I are nominally presenting the poster, but its not something that I can do remotely. Roger aka Victuallers (talk) 11:14, 9 July 2026 (UTC)

I don't know if this Lightning Talk presenter will have a slidedeck, but if they do, and if they wish to added it to Commons, this is where we'll be able to view it: commons:Category:Wikimania 2026 presentations. --Rosiestep (talk) 13:03, 11 July 2026 (UTC)

Poster

Women in Red will have a poster that features the 72. Victuallers (talk) 15:43, 8 July 2026 (UTC)

Wikimania posters will be hung on the afternoon of 20 July, and viewable by attendees 21-25 July. On the last day, poster authors will be allowed to take their posters home with them ... and I shall do that! --Rosiestep (talk) 13:03, 11 July 2026 (UTC)

The Wikimania 2026 Poster Session will occur on Thursday, 23 July, 10:30 - 11:30 local time. Women in Red's poster, honoring the Eiffel Tower Women, will be on display, and Rosiestep, will be standing beside it, wearing red, of course (photo forthcoming). --Rosiestep (talk) 15:45, 9 July 2026 (UTC)

Gathering at the Eiffel Tower

And are there any plans for interested Wikimedians to gather at the Eiffel Tower itself to attract press coverage? I realize we have only two weeks to go until the 22nd and as far as I can see, 15 of the 72 biographies in English still deserve further improvement.

Unveiling on the Eiffel Tower

By the way, do we have any further indications of when the 72 names will be unveiled on the Eiffel Tower? I've seen reports which mention some time in 2027. It would be useful if we could have a more precise date, especially as we need to encourage translation of the EN bios into other languages.--Ipigott (talk) 10:59, 9 July 2026 (UTC)

Having them all at C or above is outstanding. I have no info on the additions of the names to the tower. (I noted that the current mayor is not best mates with the previous one ,and hoped that wouldn't effect it). My interest at the moment is an editathon on women in Malawi and Scotland organised by Ed Uni and WIR clone #48toInfinity on 31 July. More news follows. Roger aka Victuallers (talk) 11:14, 9 July 2026 (UTC)

I am in touch with a relative of one of the 72 women - there is an informal group of descendants - they haven't had updates for a while but were initially told 2027 was the likely date - but following change of mayor, they've not heard anything further.

The mascot for WikiMania Paris is Lucé, a woman standing on the Eiffel Tower https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/2026:Mascot with a nice concept around collaboration.

MumphingSquirrel (talk) 11:19, 11 July 2026 (UTC)

I'm afraid I don't see the icon's connection with the Eiffel Tower but perhaps that will become clearer later. Of the 72 Eiffel Women, all but four or five of the biographies have now reached ORES GA on the EN wiki and we've still a few days to go.--Ipigott (talk) 20:07, 16 July 2026 (UTC)

References

^ 72 femmes de sciences pour la tour Eiffel Femmes & Sciences (in French). Retrieved 2026-06-27
^ "Eiffel Tower: a list of 72 women scientists will soon be inscribed on the Parisian monument". www.sortiraparis.com. Retrieved 2026-02-05.
^ "Eiffel Tower to honor 72 women scientists for posterity". 2026-01-26. Retrieved 2026-02-05.

[1] 72 femmes de sciences pour la tour Eiffel Femmes & Sciences (in French). Retrieved 2026-06-27

[2] "Eiffel Tower: a list of 72 women scientists will soon be inscribed on the Parisian monument". www.sortiraparis.com. Retrieved 2026-02-05.

[3] "Eiffel Tower to honor 72 women scientists for posterity". 2026-01-26. Retrieved 2026-02-05.

[1]

[2]

[3]