La féminiser des noms de bâtiments et lieux publics de la ville.
How do you do it? ask people for suggestions!
I was just scrolling through the web site for Alençon when I caught the image above. In a nutshell, Alençon is preparing to begin naming public spaces and such after women of note, not just men. And are doing so with grace, and elegance, and openness. It’s sad that they feel it would be too disruptive to rename places already celebrating dead men, but it is a step forward.
Here’s the Google translation of the announcement.
03/18/2022
On the occasion of International Women's Rights Day, March 8, the City of Alençon launched a major consultation to feminize the names of buildings and public places in the city.
As the “Regards de femmes” event of November 25, 2021, dedicated to the fight against violence against women, reminded us, only 3% of the streets of Alencon bear the name of a woman. Faced with this observation, the City of Alençon wishes to give more space to women in the public space by striving to increase the proportion of female names in the city. If the modification of street names is likely to cause disturbances in the daily life of the inhabitants, it is different from the choice of names for places and public buildings which do not yet have them.
In order to determine the list of names of women to pay tribute to, the municipality wishes to invite the participative authorities of the City but also all the Alençonnaises and all the Alençonnais who would like to do so to contribute to the reflection, via a dedicated questionnaire, accessible from the March 28, 2022 and until May 2.
Terms
You can propose up to 12 names of women, now deceased, who have marked the spirits by their journey, their commitments and their actions. The names of women from Alençon or Ornaise will be preferred. These proposals will be submitted to the District Councils and the Council of Elders who will each define a list of 20 names which will be proposed to the municipality. The latter will determine, from these proposals, a reserve list that can be used to name parks, public establishments, sports facilities, etc.
For any further information, the Participative Democracy service is at your disposal on 02 50 90 42 05 or by email democratie.locale@ville-alencon.fr .