Google and SPARK are putting notable women on the map

Google and the SPARK movement have teamed up to put women from history back on the map.

SPARK stands for Sexualization Protest: Action, Resistance and Knowledge. It’s an organization that encourages healthy sexuality and promotes gender equality in all areas, including on the Web.

Did you know that between 2010 and 2013 Google’s daily doodles only featured women 17 percent of the time? That observation was made by the SPARK movement who approached the tech giant to see if the two could work together to sort it out.

Google agreed to work on the doodles to include more women. It invited SPARK to research the area further and help honor notable female figures from history with ‘Women on the Map‘ – a feature now built in to Google’s Field Trip app.

When you download the app, you just need to turn on the feature to be notified whenever you’re near an area where a woman made history.

What strikes me about the SPARK movement is how young the people involved are. The movement is aimed at girls aged 13-22 and all of the research and work behind the project with Google was done by a team of girls the same age.

The app, like the movement, relies on people getting involved and letting them know about notable women in their area or even from your own home. So far, there are over 100 women from history noted on the app, and anyone can go online and nominate someone they feel is left out.

I am in Dublin, Ireland at the moment and while using the feature I noticed a distinct lack of Irish women from history. But that’s okay – I can suggest the women who I feel are notable from here and like that, if others do the same then the feature will flourish.

➤ Google Field Trip [iOS | Android]