‘We’re writing history’: Spanish women tackle Wikipedia’s gender gap

Wikiesfera is one of a handful of groups around world trying to make women visible' on user-edited site

Packed into the back room of a feminist bookshop in Madrid, 17 women hunched over their laptops, chatting and laughing as they passed around snacks. Every now and then a hearty burst of applause punctuated the sound of typing, each time marking a milestone as the group steadily chipped away at what is perhaps one of the world's most pervasive gender gaps.

Just under a fifth of Wikipedia's content, including biographies, is focused on women, while women account for just about 15% of the site's volunteer editors. The numbers are pretty terrifying," said Patricia Horrillo, who for much of the past decade has spent her spare time working to tackle this gap, cultivating a community of Wikipedia editors dedicated to publishing content focused on women.