A group of women (and one man) congregate at the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, hunched over their laptops, typing and talking with one another about concepts like art, feminism, gender and technology. This is an Art + Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon, one of many happening around the world this March.

These editing groups came about in 2014 after research conducted in 2011 by the Wikimedia Foundation announced that more than 90% of Wikipedia’s editors (the people who write entries) are male. And less than 5% of its super-users—people with more than 500 edits to their names—are women. This creates a gender gap in the types of subjects that get their own Wikipedia page, which includes women artists. A New Yorker article on the topic points out that the entry for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is twice the length of the entry for Toni Morrison, a Nobel Prize-winning author. (I’m sure you can find more examples.)

The edit-a-thon taking place at the DVAA was organized by its director Elaine Giguere and Christine Ahern, a former director of radio station WJFF. The original event was started by Siân Evans, Jacqueline Mabey and Michael Mandiberg, held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Events are planned at over 125 venues across every inhabited continent. Ahern said she had heard about the events and thought it was a good idea. She likes technology (having worked at a radio station) and thinks it’s fun as well as empowering.

She and Giguere got a group of participants to gather on March 12. Some are artists, some came with specific pages in mind to edit or create, and some came to observe and learn. Valerie Mansi of Jeffersonville and Rosie Starr of Beach Lake looked over the shoulder of artist Daria Dorosh of Barryville as she edited the page for A.I.R. Gallery. “I’m here to get an overview; I’m curious about the process,” Starr said. Mansi agreed, “I’m interested in art and feminism, and the role of women in Wikipedia and how we can help create a greater presence.”

Dorosh was a founding member of A.I.R. Gallery. While it already had a Wikipedia page, Dorosh, a feminist since 1970, was adding more information. The entry reads, “A.I.R. was the first all female cooperative gallery in the United States. It was founded in 1972 with the objective of providing a professional and permanent exhibition space for women artists during a time in which the works shown at commercial galleries in New York City were almost exclusively by male artists.” Dorosh is listed as one of the founders on the Wikipedia page, but doesn’t have her own page. And so Giguere got to work creating one.

Sandy Long and Krista Gromalski were there to create a page for Barbara Yeaman, founder of the Delaware Highlands Conservancy. Neither of them had created a Wikipedia page before, but learned quickly. They used reference materials, as sources should be cited. “We love to write about Barbara,” Long said. “Her story is so inspiring; she has amazing accomplishments.” They said she began the conservancy at 70 years old with 12 acres of land; the organization now has over 14,000 acres of land protected.

Giguere was sitting with writer and Narrowsburg resident Nora Eisenberg. Not only were they creating Wikipedia pages, but they also tasked themselves with creating a master list of local women artists to be added at some point. They acknowledged that the number of women artists is equal to if not greater than the number of male artists. Also, they pointed out that many women artists were overshadowed by their husbands, such as Willem de Kooning’s wife, Elaine. Giguere says that the DVAA has always exhibited many women artists.

There are a few theories on why this gender gap exists in Wikipedia. One reason is because women don’t have enough time to edit, as they are taking care of the home and children. Other causes are Wikipedia’s code-heavy editing interface and a sometimes hostile user culture. “Women don’t want to jump into an environment where they can be harassed,” Ahern said. Indeed, a recent study reported that nearly half the 1,000 women respondents, in research done by the digital security firm Norton, had experienced some form of abuse or harassment online. Among women under 30, the incidence was 76%.

In addition, women are underrepresented in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields. According to the National Girls Collaborative Project, women make up 47% of the total U.S. workforce, but are much less represented in particular science and engineering occupations (U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Women in the Labor Force: A Databook, 2014). For example, 8.3% of electrical and electronics engineers are women. The website Jezebel reports, “The problem is hardly one of enthusiasm, but rather widespread sexual harassment in the fields that, unsurprisingly, goes unpunished.”

Which all goes to say that the Art + Feminism meet-ups are a step in furthering the equality between men and women, one Wikipedia page at a time.