[1] The database entries contain an individual's affiliation, title, areas of expertise, publications, and previous media appearances.
[1][2] For example, from March 2015 to March 2016, 80% of the experts quoted on political science topics by The New York Times were men, and over a similar period Media Matters for America found that 75% of foreign affairs and national security commentators on prime time cable and Sunday shows were men.
[3] The founders of the organization posited that the reason that news articles disproportionately cite men is that journalists and producers on a deadline have to rely on a highly homogeneous network of experts; a database could therefore facilitate quickly finding women experts whom the journalists might not yet know.
[1] The Women Also Know Stuff database began as a crowdsourced effort, but later switched to a format in which individuals have to sign themselves up.
[12][13] Women Also Know Stuff has also inspired similar projects in other languages, such as Las Mujeres También Saben.