Search Wikipedia for , the first person to reach the North Pole (or and , depending whom you ask) and you鈥檒l find a detailed breakdown of his personal life, accomplishments, multiple expeditions, photos, etc. Now search for , the first woman to trek to the North Pole. You鈥檒l find a couple paragraphs and a single picture.
Wikipedia has a woman problem. We are vastly underrepresented in the crowdsourced encyclopedia, and less than of U.S. editors on the site are female. Earlier this year, , an organization for women in journalism, hosted a , giving attendees the tools to expand and improve the pages of notable women on the site. I tweeted about the New York City event, which I couldn鈥檛 attend since I live 1,800 miles away in Boulder. SNEWS assistant editor Kassondra Cloos, who also lives in Boulder, responded that the two of us should organize a local event. The idea stuck.
Most Boulderites鈥 personal and professional lives tend to revolve around the outdoors. My neighbors are ultrarunners, rock climbers, mountain bikers, and skiers. For my nine-to-five, I鈥檓 an editor at a collection of websites dedicated to outdoor sports. Naturally, our edit-athon focused on women explorers, athletes, and adventurers.
鈥淲hen you Google someone and a Wikipedia page pops up, it鈥檚 an indication that the person is important and has done something worth reading about. So when you鈥檙e looking for more information about, say, a female business owner and Wikipedia turns up empty, it鈥檚 a signal that the person isn鈥檛 important,鈥 says Cloos. 鈥淲hen we started Googling women in the outdoor industry who we know have made a huge impact in this community, I was shocked at how many women we couldn鈥檛 find.鈥
So we asked ourselves: who was missing or underrepresented on the site? We made a list of 20 or so names and organizations (though there are countless others) whose absences most stood out.
The list was filled with badass women of the outdoors, like , the first African American woman to reach the North and South Poles, and American climber , both of whom only have a few measly sentences on their pages. Others are missing altogether, like the , a media and adventure nonprofit; climbing pioneer Maria Cranor; and Rue Mapp, founder of .
鈥淭he outdoor industry has long said it wants to increase the number of women in leadership roles,鈥 says Cloos. 鈥淚 think the first step toward improving the industry for women is recognizing, in a big and visible way, what we have already contributed.鈥
So, a couple months after Her Girl Friday鈥檚 edit-athon, 15 of us gathered at Sanitas Brewing Company to learn how to edit and add notable women of the outdoors to Wikipedia. Local volunteers from the site showed up to help with best practices and the technical how-tos of editing and adding to the encyclopedia. Creating full-blown pages is a time-consuming task that involves solid reporting, credible citations, and often a multiweek approval period. But creating these pages, no matter how small, is an important first step. From there, it allows others to more easily add and build on those pages over time. We hoped that giving attendees these digital tools would inspire them to add more on their own time in the future.
鈥淚 think so many of us here in Boulder felt paralyzed after the election,鈥 says Cloos. 鈥淎dding more women to Wikipedia felt like a way to fight back. I hope people who came to our event left feeling empowered, like they could actually make a difference and that no one could stop them.鈥
The Wikipedia Pages We Added
*Note: It usually takes up to a month for edits and new pages to be approved on Wikipedia, so not all changes may yet be live as of publishing. It鈥檚 also not guaranteed that all edits will be approved.
鈼 , CEO of Burton Snowboards and an advocate for female leadership in the outdoor industry
鈼 , publication focusing on women鈥檚 outdoor sports and adventure travel
鈼 , dogsled racer, author, and nonfiction writer
鈼 , first paid female ranger for the National Park Service
鈼 , nonprofit focused on women in outdoor rec jobs
鈼 , CEO of Patagonia and champion of the company鈥檚 on-site childcare program
鈼 , skier and first woman to win Powder鈥檚 Best Line award
鈼 , elite ultrarunner
The Wikipedia Pages We Expanded
鈼 , big-mountain skier and founder of SheJumps
鈼 , author, adventurer, and producer of Afghan Cycles
鈼 , pro skier
鈼 , freeskier and avalanche survivor
鈼 , to include Rose Marcario