Background

Until 2018, only 3 out of the 303 stops of the Paris metro were named after famous female historical figures. Many people feel that this is not an egalitarian treatment, given the fact that there are also many famous women in French history.

Goal

More equality in the naming of metro stations in Paris.

Measure

The Osez le féminisme (Dare to be a feminist) interest group launched an initiative to ensure that more stations bear names of women. One of their achievements was the organisation of a public online vote to find names for two new stations on the metro line 4 planned to be put into operation in 2021. There were 6 names to choose from, 3 female and 3 male names. [1]

Outcome

Almost 30,000 people took part in the online voting. Two women’s names actually turned out to be the winners. Additionally, in 2018 a station in the north of Paris was renamed Europe-Simone Veil – in honour of the former President of the European Parliament and Holocaust survivor. It can be assumed that more attention will be paid to this topic in the future. There are similar initiatives taking place in Brussels and Amsterdam. Street names there are also very unevenly distributed, with only 2.6% of street names using female personalities names, compared to 31% of male names. [2,3]

Sources:

[1] News article on The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/17/paris-metro-male-names-world-without-women-public-vote-new-stations

[2] Osez le Féminisme: Campaigning to add more women to Paris’s metro station names
https://theculturetrip.com/europe/france/paris/articles/osez-le-feminisme-campaigning-to-add-more-women-to-pariss-metro-station-names/

[3] Piece of news on similar initiatives taking place in Amsterdam and Brussels where feminists are campaigning to name more streets after women.
https://www.citymetric.com/fabric/paris-amsterdam-and-brussels-feminists-are-campaigning-name-more-streets-after-women-4137