Geochicas and the path into mapping more inclusive spaces for women

Selene Yang Rappaccioli, National University of La Plata, Argentina
Within the mapping community, data is often presented as objective, and we have yet to generate a sustained analysis of gender bias as a structural problem. The data structures, meanings, symbols and epistemologies that are expressed in voluntary geographic information (VGI) projects (such as OpenStreetMap) generate “invisible” exclusion factors that do not encompass the diversity of experiences of some social groups that participate in their creation. In the case of OSM, the ratio of participation by gender is 97% male and 3% female (Budhathoki,2010), resulting in cartographies that reproduce male-centered experiences of space. The change of paradigms on the construction of cartography has made evident that regardless of the massive amounts of VGI that’s put into the collaborative mapping projects, truly only a few people’s experience is part of the creation of the maps. The technological and academic communities that I belong to do not have the tools to analyze this type of bias and the consequences it has in the field of research. My work intends to generate the data that might make this kind of analysis possible.