Chișinău, Milan, Zagreb. In 30 of Europe’s largest cities, streets named after men make up 91 per cent of those named after individuals. The gap is starting to narrow in some locations, but the pace is still too slow: alternative strategies are also needed
Whether it is a major artery on the outskirts of a metropolis or an alley in the center of a town, a city on the Scandinavian peninsula or located on the coasts of the Mediterranean, in the westernmost regions of Europe or in Kiev, the streets of Europe have at least one thing in common: they honor men far more often than women.
In collaboration with other members of the European Data Journalism Network we looked into 145,933 streets in 30 major European cities, spread across 17 different EU member states or candidate states. On average, 91 percent of streets named after individuals are dedicated to men. In Stockholm, the city with the smallest gender gap, streets dedicated to men still account for more than 80 percent of the total.
Different cities, different women
There are some differences between the various cities. For example, in some European regions, especially in Northern and Central-Eastern Europe, it is relatively uncommon to name streets after people. In addition to Stockholm, the cities with the most streets dedicated to women are Copenhagen and Spanish cities, but the data of the latter is inflated by the enormous number of streets or squares dedicated to the various appellations of the Virgin Mary (211 streets in just three cities). . In contrast, in Athens, Prague and Debrecen less than 5 per cent of the streets named after individuals are dedicated to women.
Percentage of streets named after women compared to those named after individuals
Overall, the streets we analyzed commemorate around 41,000 different individuals. Even though Europe is densely populated and can look back on a rich millennial history, only 3,500 women have managed to get a street named after them in the 30 major cities we analysed. If they were all alive today they could fill the apartments and houses of a single avenue. It is a clear indication of who has been most celebrated in our societies. The male preponderance in our street names exerts a subliminal but ongoing influence that perpetuates the marginalization of women’s contributions to history, art, culture or science.
In the cities considered, the Virgin Mary and Saint Anne are the most popular female characters. However, most streets named after women do not pay homage to religious figures. Typically the streets celebrate figures active in science or culture, including many writers and artists. Noblewomen and political figures are also mentioned relatively often in European street names.
However, there are significant differences between cities. For example, both Copenhagen and Krakow have named their streets after 71 women; only one of the women named after a street in Copenhagen was a religious figure, while in Krakow there are at least ten.
The differences between cities are much smaller when it comes to the geographical origin of the women after whom the streets are named: apart from a few Middle Eastern female saints, they were almost all of European origin. The exceptions that stand out the most are those of Indian leader Indira Gandhi and South African artist Miriam Makeba.
The gap does not close
The huge gender gap in street names in Europe is perhaps not surprising, given the age-old marginalization of women from education, public life and the economy. Street names tend to reflect the power relations that were in place when the streets were actually built, i.e. the 19th and early 20th centuries for most cities on our continent.
Thanks to the efforts of many activists and intellectuals, awareness of the over-representation of affluent white males is growing in Europe. However, the data indicates that this awareness has not yet led to a significant change in street naming. We obtained data on namings in a number of large European cities over the last decade: no municipality has really started to close the gender gap, and indeed some have even widened it further. For example, between 2012 and 2022 Amsterdam, Berlin, Milan and Valencia continued to designate more streets for men than for women.
“Since 2017, we’ve planned for strict gender parity in naming new streets, so that there is a woman for every man. However, we continue to receive many more naming proposals for male names, almost ten times as much compared to female names”, says Antonella Amodio, official in charge of toponymy for the city of Milan. Greater sensitivity towards the issue has led to greater awareness: the municipality is now monitoring the gender gap and is creating a dedicated website to explore Milanese places and monuments named after women.
Observing gender parity in the new titles will not contribute to closing the existing gender gap: in fact, to succeed it would not even be enough to dedicate most, or even all, of the new streets to women. European cities simply no longer grow as they used to: every year there are only a few dozen new streets to give a name to, while today, in the cities we have analysed, there are 42,900 more streets named after men than those dedicated to men. women. Even if it were possible to give new streets only female names, it would still take centuries to fill the gap.
Moreover, some activists and scholars point out that the new streets that are dedicated to women are often found in very peripheral areas, where such figures have little visibility – while male names continue to dominate the main streets and squares of city centres. For example, a study conducted in 2021 on the streets of Brussels, it found that “the greater the importance of the street, the rarer it is that it is named after a woman”.
How to improve the situation?
It would be difficult to imagine a major re-naming operation to existing streets aimed at eliminating the gender gap: changing hundreds of thousands of addresses would be very inconvenient and cause too much confusion. Strategies that explore other ways to celebrate women in public spaces, for example by naming schools, parks or airports after them, are more viable.
There is no one solution that fits everywhere, but in any case, bottom-up participation should be favored, which is essential for triggering change. Réka Sáfrány, President of the European Women’s Lobby, agrees: “It is very important that local governments collaborate with civil society when deciding on the naming of streets, and it can also be useful to consult the population. In some districts of Budapest, for example, people can vote on the naming of new streets”. Bottom-up approaches can really trigger reflections that push for real change – while top-down inclusion exercises risk turning out to be mere communication initiatives by local politicians.
As Sáfrány notes, “we should find a way to link these good practices and encourage their spread from one country to another. It would be very useful if the EU could help promote these exchanges”. Mapping Diversity our project on European street names, was born precisely to feed analysis and reflections on gender issues in public spaces in Europe, providing detailed and comparable data on a large scale.
* Alice Corona is part of Sheldon.studio
Thirty cities
Our analysis – the results of which can be consulted on Mapping Diversity – covers the following cities: Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, Wroclaw, Brussels, Bucharest, Budapest, Chisinau, Copenhagen, Krakow, Gdansk, Debrecen, Genoa, Katowice, Kiev, Lyon, Lisbon, Lodz, Madrid, Milan, Palermo, Paris, Prague, Rome, Seville, Stockholm, Turin, Warsaw, Vienna and Zagreb.
Have you thought about a subscription to OBC Transeuropa? You will support our work and receive preview articles and more content. Subscribe to OBCT!