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Welcome to my Wikipedia User page! I'm Susan (Sue) Barnum a librarian from El Paso, Texas. I'm solidly anti-racist, pro-LGBTQ+, and believe feminism is for everyone. I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography and a Masters of Library and Information Science. I'm an atheist, which only tells you that I'm not convinced there's a god, but I was raised Catholic. I live with my kids and am owned by my dogs.
I'm a librarian and I will add information and links to articles about libraries and those who work at libraries. However, I will not edit articles about any institution that I personally work for. I will also generally write about local areas of my city, El Paso, and state of Texas, but I am not compensated for anything I write on Wikipedia.
I started to become very interested in working on articles about women for several reasons. One was that I was appalled that less than 16% of all biographies on Wikipedia were about women. I wanted to help. I became involved in Women in Red to help and have enjoyed the supportive and fun atmosphere of the project so much.
I have been focusing very heavily on the Women's suffrage in the United States articles because that movement is inspiring to me. I don't like the racism found in it! That's upsetting, though not unsurprising! However, there are so many women who worked tirelessly over so many years, and that's important to remember. Every political movement takes tons of time and effort and sometimes that work seems so incremental that it feels like nothing is happening--but in reality things are changing and we can't give up. I feel that highlighting the work of many of these unsung women is important. It reminds us that women have always been here and fought against great odds, often while caring for their families at the same time!
Some of my focus is on local women from El Paso, Texas. I am friends with some local historians and they tell me about interesting women who need articles on Wikipedia. It's cool to find out about these people and learn a little more about the history of my city.
"[W]hen I’m sometimes asked when will there be enough [women on the supreme court]? And I say ‘When there are nine.’ People are shocked. But there’d been nine men, and nobody’s ever raised a question about that."
"Just think about (this): The Civil War lasted four years; the women's suffrage movement - conservatively defined - lasted 72. How many books and films are there about the Civil War (and) how many books and films are there about the women's suffrage movement?"
"Women staged one of the longest social reform movements in the history of the United States. This is not a boring history of nagging spinsters; it is a badass history of revolution staged by political geniuses." --Kate Clarke Lemay (from The Week).