The French Socialist-led city of Nantes has announced plans to revamp public spaces in the name of equality as part of the city 2025 budget.
Disclosed on January 27, the stated goal was to make streets, parks and facilities more accommodating for women and LGBTQIA+ individuals.
The initiative was part of a project to place Nantes as the “first gender-neutral city in France by 2030”.
The city said it would focus on redesigning urban spaces, improving lighting, widening pavements and installing “non-sexist” street furniture.
City officials claimed that sexism and gender-based exclusion were prevalent in public spaces, citing a French report entitled Tackling the Roots of Sexism published in 2024.
That argued “99 per cent of women in France” have faced a sexist comment or act.
Nantes will apply its so-called “gender-sensitive budget” to the revamping of the city, thus, it said, ensuring taxpayer money was distributed in a way that prioritised gender equality.
“Public finances are not gender-neutral: they reflect the biases and trends of a society where inequalities between women and men persist. However, public finances are a powerful tool for action,” a post about the plan on the city website read.
The project was set to include “participative evaluations” where citizens would be encouraged to share their analyses to assess how public spaces catered to different genders.
All LGBTQIA+ residents must be able to say to themselves: This is my city too.
According to the city’s deputy for equality, Mahaut Bertu, the initiative would help identify “biases and inequalities” in cultural programmes and community events, with authorities ready to “rectify the situation” as needed.
Nantes’ left-leaning city council insisted the project was essential for combating sexism and ensuring all citizens felt safe in public spaces.
Some observers feel critics may question whether such apparent social engineering was the best use of municipal resources.
Amsterdam city officials are refusing to name a bridge in honour of a famous Dutch resistance hero because the responsible commission prefers selecting names from women and people of non-Dutch descent. https://t.co/O6aBfTlMRz
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) October 4, 2024
Nantes is not alone in Europe regarding the plans.
In Flanders, Belgium, cities can now rely on a toolkit designed to help municipalities create safer spaces for women.
On January 25, Flemish sexual health expertise centre Sensoa created the kit to help local governments in Flanders tackle sexual harassment in public spaces.
The free online resource offers practical advice on measures such as “smart lighting” in strategic places, the placement of street furniture and the creation of safe spaces during events.
“Local governments can have a real impact on reducing sexual street harassment. After all, no one knows the city or town better and can pinpoint the pain points,” Sensoa said in a press release.
Flemish Minister of Welfare Caroline Gennez of Vooruit backed the project.
“With targeted actions, support from the Flemish government – and if we pay a little more attention to each other – together we can reclaim public space and make it safe for everyone,” she said.
The Brussels-Capital Region was recently also said to be taking steps to combat sexism in public spaces by removing the “De Rijpheid” (The Maturity) monument.
Local authorities argued that the statue promotes a “patriarchal” and “paternalistic” view of society, as it portrayed a man as a symbol of wisdom and a woman as a symbol of fertility.
These various initiatives seem in line with broader European Union thinking. In the 1990s, all members of the bloc adopted the policy of “gender mainstreaming”.
As defined by the European Commission in 1996, that means “not restricting efforts to promote equality to the implementation of specific measures to help women but mobilising all general policies and measures specifically for the purpose of achieving equality”.
The Government of the Brussels-Capital Region has said it wants to remove the stately monument “De Rijpheid” because it “no longer aligns with the values of modern times”. https://t.co/0nI5WDnRYR
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) January 24, 2025
