Wikipedia talk:Articles for deletion/List of famous women in history

I can hardly believe the List of Famous Women in History was deleted. The reasons given for deletion were mostly ridiculous. Do absurd arguments somehow become less absurd if there are a lot of them?

Yes, it is a wide category, but that doesn't mean there isn't a need for it. Also I think that argument, repeatedly given, was more pun ("broad" category) than genuine.

One of the rationalisations that especially made my teeth grind was the statement that these people were made special by being female. It a ridiculous argument to make -- should lists of African writers be deleted because they are made special by being in Africa? Men undeniably have the limelight in history. Any little girl could be forgiven for thinking that there are no historically important women or that they can be counted on the fingers of one hand. This list helped to undo that misperception. As for the fact that it was considered too long -- there are plenty of long lists on Wikipedia that do an excellent job of being a good starting point for students and researchers.

The variants on the argument that the list shouldn't exist because it is specifically about women and thus in some way sexist is laughable. Are the lists of religions somehow discriminating against religions or atheists?

The page was first and foremost extremely useful. That should be enough of a reason to let it stand. It still exists inside the Internet Archive. I would be happy to put time and effort into reconstructing it on Wikipedia if I could be reasonably sure some misogynists or overly enthusiastic "politically correct" loons didn't get it deleted again. Miriam e (talk) 08:50, 18 May 2014 (UTC)