LONDON — The gender pay gap is a phrase that many people are, by now, well acquainted with.

SEE ALSO: Why women in the UK just walked out of work

In the past few months alone, we've seen women across Europe walk out of work at a specific time to mark the moment when women effectively start working for free — because, on average, they earn less than men.



But, there's another gender gap that's just as deserving of our attention — the Wikipedia gender gap. And, the BBC is teaming up with Wikipedia in order to address it head-on.

According to the BBC, only 17 percent of the English-language Wikipedia biographies were about women and just 15 percent of Wikipedia's volunteer editors are female.

BBC Media cafe, we are hard at work trying to boost the number of notable women appearing on Wikipedia! #100womenwiki pic.twitter.com/kgIgrAZrf6 — Talia Franco (@franct) December 8, 2016

The BBC's London headquarters is hosting a 12-hour edit-a-thon on Thursday in partnership with Wikimedia UK to create profiles for the forgotten women and unsung heroes of history whose stories have not yet been documented on Wikipedia.



Ramaa Sharma — one of the editors working on the BBC's "100 Women 2016" project — told Mashable that BBC bureaux from every continent are contributing to the edit-a-thon.



"They've unearthed some names in their regions that aren't currently on Wikipedia. Names we otherwise wouldn't have known or heard of," Sharma told Mashable.

"For example, we are documenting the stories of people who are campaigning to end witch hunts in India and there is someone who’s been doing that for years," Sharma continued.

Some of myriad profiles created during the edit-a-thon include Nguyễn Thị Ánh Viên, a national-record holding swimmer from Vietnam; Hande Kader, a Turkish sex worker and transgender activist; and Salma Khatun, the first female train driver in Bangladesh. The BBC is updating a live-blog of each profile that's being created throughout the day.



As part of the edit-a-thon, there will be 15 events in BBC bureaux in 13 countries happening in multiple languages to grow the number of female editors and to add women deemed to be deserving of recognition.

We're re-writing @Wikipedia to get more women back into history, like Uganda's rebel queen Muhumuza #100womenwiki https://t.co/iuwpC4gbKU — BBC Africa (@BBCAfrica) December 8, 2016

According to Sharma this project is particularly significant when it comes to tackling internet sexism in general.

"There is a feeling that the internet doesn‘t always feel like a comfortable place for women to take part," Sharma told Mashable.

"It’s quite regularly documented that women are often trolled on the internet. Women gamers are trolled.

Sharma says that the edit-a-thon is a way of addressing one aspect of internet sexism. But, more work is still required in taking on widespread issues surrounding the online harassment and trolling of women and making the internet a more welcoming space for women.

"It’s tricky, we can't keep across everything thats happening on the internet. What we know is that it’s not always easy to participate because of the trolling that women get," Sharma continued.

Sajha Sawal presenter @cbidhya on wiki-edit-a-thon with her colleagues from BBC Media Action #Nepal and BBC Nepali Service. #100womenwiki pic.twitter.com/ehIe03nVce — Sajha Sawal (@BBCSajhaSawal) December 8, 2016

Lucy Crompton-Reid — Wikimedia UK's chief executive — said in a statement emailed to Mashable that the organisation hopes this partnership with the BBC will raise awareness of the gender gap on Wikipedia. The organisation also hopes it will help to increase coverage of women and to encourage more people to edit Wikipedia pages.

"We are committed to building an inclusive online community and ensuring that Wikipedia reflects our diverse society and is free from bias," Crompton-Reid said.

Women and men also have the option of taking part in the edit-a-thon from their own homes. A full list of instructions for editing and creating a Wikipedia page as part of the project can be read on the BBC website.