The Hard Battle For Women's Visibility In The Streets Of Geneva

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) Geneva is at a crossroads as city officials push to rename streets after women, sparking a fierce debate over tradition, inclusivity and the visibility of women in history.

For the past five years, the city of Geneva has prioritised feminising its street names. The effort was sparked by a
worrying realisation: out of all the streets named after people in the city, a mere 7% were dedicated to women. Today, that figure has doubled to 15%, placing Geneva ahead of cities like Paris (8.6%) and Berlin (12.1%) but still trailing Stockholm (19.5%) or Madrid (18.7%).

But Geneva's efforts do not only show in numbers. What makes the city's strategy different is its focus on renaming streets in the historic centre. This is a bold departure from the common practice of dedicating women's names to streets in peripheral or newly developed areas, without a prior address.

According to Frédéric Giraut, a geography professor at the University of Geneva, this approach sends a stronger message.“Not all streets are equal in terms of visibility,” he tells SWI swissinfo in an interview. But this is also more controversial, as it implies the renaming of old streets and generates resistance from those attached to the history of the city and more administrative havoc than just naming a new street.

“This is why most cities avoid this strategy,” he adds.

For Laure Piguet, one of the historians involved in the project, it was the only way to really make a change.“We didn't want to relegate women to alleys, dead ends, and remote neighbourhoods,” she says.

The project launched in 2019 started as a temporary initiative, to raise awareness of the gender gap in Geneva's streets. In partnership with a feminist association, l'Escouade, the city added a hundred nameplates celebrating women next to the official street signs.

“This sparked a debate about the invisibility of women in the public space,” says Heloïse Roman, who headed the project for the city and remembers it as a success.

As a result, the local parliament decided to rename 100 streets after women across the canton, this time permanently. Of those, the city of Geneva aimed to rename 30 following the criteria set by the law. To be eligible for a street name, women must have been dead for at least ten years and to have contributed to the history or influence of the city.

Piguet and other historians tasked with proposing names decided to rethink this last criterion to include not only high-profile figures but also unsung contributors to Geneva's history.

“In the past, streets have been named after the authors of military feats, scientific breakthroughs or artistic masterpieces,” says the historian.“But throughout history, it has been hard for women, especially those from lower social background, to participate in these celebrated activities.”

“To represent them, we had to widen the scope of what was considered important for the city,” she explains.“For example, we named a street after three washerwomen who died in 1913, in an accident of their wash-house boat. The death of these women led to the creation of more secure wash-house boats, and in this respect, it was key to the development of Geneva.”

The city also prioritised diversity, selecting figures like Annie Jiagee, a Ghanaian lawyer and activist, and journalist Marie-Claude Leburgue, an LGBTQ rights advocate.

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