Women Remembered – Celebrating Women’s History Month through Open Data

Only five out of New York City’s 150 monuments of historic figures honor women. But New York City is not alone – fewer than 8% of historic monuments across the country represent women. From monuments to street names to how we dedicate our public libraries, the underrepresentation of prominent women contributes to a gap in our cultural understanding of what women have been able to accomplish. Mapping the locations of these monuments and dedications though, has the power of helping us close both the gaps in the physical representation as well as our documentation of their lives.

In celebration of International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, we will talk about how OpenStreetMap data can help us understand gaps in diverse historic representation in New York City, of women and other historically excluded groups.

At the end of this session, attendees will have had a hands-on experience contributing to OpenStreetMap for better representation on the map.