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The French City Striving to Stamp Out Sexism
The public spaces in Nantes, a city along the Loire River in the west of France, might at first glance seem just like those in any other part of Europe. Across the city, there are numerous bike lanes, bustling fresh produce markets and pretty, historic squares.
But on closer inspection, there are signs of a profound attempt to make the city, its facilities and its built environment a more equitable place for women.
Hundreds of streets now bear the names of women, including Joséphine Baker, Frida Kahlo and Clémence Lefeuvre — the little-known creator of local specialty beurre blanc sauce. School yards, once dominated by soccer pitches, have been remodeled to incorporate spaces for calm and creativity. Stations for breastfeeding have been built in the city center to improve maternal comfort and visibly counter stigma. Free tampon dispensers have been installed in libraries, gyms and all kinds of other municipal buildings.
The new Boulevard Gisèle Halimi, named after the feminist lawyer (1927-2020), is located in the Prairie-au-Duc district on the Île de Nantes. Credit: Patrick Garcon / Nantes Métropole.
These initiatives form part of mayor Johanna Rolland’s bold plan to make Nantes, which is home to around 700,000 people and is the sixth largest city in France, a ville non-sexiste, or non-sexist city. From redesigning public areas to reallocating spending and inaugurating France’s leading center to counter gender-based violence, Nantes is trailblazing the way to safer, less discriminatory urban life.
“We couldn’t wait for change anymore, we had to take action,” says Mahaut Bertu, the deputy mayor of Nantes in charge of equality, the fight against discrimination and the non-sexist city project. “Femicides continue every year. Women suffer harassment every day. [To make change], we had to take a hold of the problem ourselves.”
Shortly after taking power in 2014, Rolland and her team set about carrying out research and compiling statistics on the extent of inequality in Nantes, since at that point limited information existed.
The findings of the research, which included income, violence and public spaces, were striking. Analysis found, for example, that of the 3,000 streets in Nantes, fewer than four percent of them were named after women compared with more than 36 percent bearing men’s names. More broadly, it found that, in 2014, 58 percent of women aged 15 to 64 were employed, compared to 63 percent of men. And women represented 70 percent of the so-called “working poor” — those in employment but below the poverty line.
From that understanding, city authorities went about introducing women-centered policy and ramping up investment. One of the most pressing issues was responding to gender-based violence.
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In France, 99 percent of women have been victims of a sexist comment or act at least once in their lives, according to the French High Council for Equality, an independent advisory body. “Far from declining, sexism is becoming entrenched, even increasing,” its 2024 report concluded.
In November 2019, following years of consultation with residents, women’s rights groups and nonprofits, the city opened Citad’elles, a shelter for women victims of violence that provides free, centralized support 24/7 — something that to this day does not exist anywhere else in France.
Before, women would have to travel to multiple places across the city to reach the services Citad’elles provides, with some often closed on weekends. But the opening of the 700-square-meter facility, which houses 18 nonprofits offering legal and psychological services, medical care, art and dance workshops, among many others, means that high-quality support is provided in a central location within one building.
Citad’elles provides free, around the clock support for women victims of violence. Credit: Christiane Blanchard / Nantes Métropole.
Since its launch, Citad’elles, into which the city invested more than €1 million, has provided services to more than 5,500 women, with an average of three new users per day. Around 450 women are seen for follow-up appointments each month.
“Everything was on their shoulders and we wanted to change that,” says Caroline Godard, manager of the custom-designed facility, which has bespoke lighting and noise insulation to help create a calming space for those who often arrive in a very emotional state, and adjoining spaces for children with a view of their mother when they are receiving care. “Here, we respond to all types of violences — physical, of course, but also gendered violence at the workplace, or administrative violence [such as immigrants without the right to work].”
The city has also sought to address the often-overlooked realm of outdoor spaces when it comes to gender inequality.
Following an open call for suggestions, 188 more women’s names have been added to city landmarks such as streets and public facilities, nearly trebling the total over the previous two centuries.
“It’s about sending a message,” says Sarah Caquineau, the city’s head of public policy for the non-sexist city project, as we stroll through the historic center. “Representation in public spaces impacts us and how we perceive ourselves. Women deserve to be showcased in the streets, in museums and galleries.”
Nearby, we pass the Pride Steps — a staircase painted in rainbow colors. Long an emblem of the LGBTQIA+ community in Nantes, it was officially renamed by the city hall in March 2025, underlining authorities’ broader approach to inclusivity. That was further emphasized by the decision to hold a drag show this summer in the city’s 15th century castle, Château Anne de Bretagne.
“It’s important for us to confront our history with our present,” says Caquineau.
The city also contributes to the financing of Hom’Up — an accommodation and social support system for LGBTQIA+ people aged 18 to 25 who have been excluded from their families.
A few hundred meters away, we reach a piece of street furniture dedicated to parenting. The wheelchair-accessible wooden structure, built this year and inspired by a similar project in Barcelona, allows for a variety of uses, including breastfeeding, bottle-feeding, diaper changing, playing and taking a break. One of two prototypes, which cost around €30,000 ($35,000) each, their use will be studied over a year before the city decides whether to make them permanent and to build others.
A “banc parental” in Nantes. Credit: Capucine Girard Colombier / Nantes Métropole.
The project was in part triggered by the fact that last year a breastfeeding mother was asked to leave the city’s central train station by employees, according to Caquineau. “We still have to fight stereotypes,” she says.
City authorities are also considering improving night time lighting in public spaces to make women safer, although a point of contention has emerged: How to do this while at the same time reducing energy consumption as part of Nantes’ climate goals.
Another one of Rolland’s priorities has been remodeling public institutions and the services that they offer.
For example, Nantes began to use “gender-sensitive budgeting” for city projects in 2023, calculating whether male citizens benefit more than female citizens from spending, and if so, reallocating resources. The funding for the Music Conservatory has been analyzed and similar work has been done for the city’s Scènes Vagabondes cultural festival and the Participatory Budget.
More concretely, it has also begun to rework school yards, often dominated by soccer pitches — and therefore older boys. About 60 of the city’s 160 school yards have been transformed so far. At the Chêne d’Aron primary school, trees have been planted and wood chips spread in parts of the yard, which was once purely asphalt. There’s now a picnic table, a tepee and a small vegetable plot to provide space for other activities.
“There’s now fewer disputes,” says Erell Fischer, head of the school yard project. “And we see girls playing with the boys.”
This year, a pilot study is taking place in four of the schools to assess the impact of the new playgrounds. Fischer’s team is also working with school employees to help promote fairer use of the spaces.
At the same time, Nantes has an initiative to fight “period poverty” and to help reduce the costly burden of women’s sanitary products.
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In 2022, it installed 32 sanitary product dispensers in public buildings. Faced with high demand it added another 30 in 2024, and this year a further 10. The goal is for women and menstruating individuals to obtain free, high-quality sanitary products within a 15-minute walk of their home. Nearly 400,000 have been distributed to date.
At the Jacques Demy media library, the largest in Nantes, 1,500 to 2,000 sanitary products are given out each month. Since 2022, demand has increased by 30 percent — a sign of the growing take up.
“In other cities, these dispensers are normally only in places for vulnerable populations,” says Caquineau. “But here, we put them in all kinds of places. There should be less stigmatization.”
The related and final plank of Nantes’ efforts has been to deconstruct stereotypical representations and to fight taboos.
The city holds several feminist guided tours a year, and has launched a public information campaign involving podcasts, posters and events such as educational workshops to “help people understand and welcome their first period.”
Yet progress in this regard is harder to measure and public opinion is nuanced.
Sitting on a bench in the historic center, Marie-Paul, 62, welcomed the city’s efforts as a “good idea” but also raised some questions about streets being renamed. “We shouldn’t forget the past, even if it wasn’t positive,” she said.
Waiting at a tram stop, Shemsy Mercier, an 18-year-old film student, praised the opening of Citad’elles, but was dissatisfied with the slow pace of change in France. “The courts do nothing,” she said. “The voice of the perpetrators is always heard more than the victims […] Salaries are still unequal.”
Sara Ortiz Escalante, a feminist urban planner and member of Col·lectiu Punt 6, a pioneering cooperative made up of architects, sociologists and urban planners in Barcelona, nonetheless acknowledges Nantes’ wide-ranging efforts.
“I’m happy they are putting these issues in the centre, making care infrastructures visible in the city, and increasing recognition of women’s contributions to society,” she says.
According to Escalante, urban planning since the twentieth century has long been “androcentric, patriarchal and responded to an economic model of capitalism.”
A feminist guided tour in Bouffay, a neighborhood in Nantes. Credit: Céline Jacq / Nantes Métropole.
The focus, she says, has been on white middle-class men and not on the majority of people that live in cities — women, minority groups, children, elderly, people with disabilities and the working class.
“The vision and role of women in public space has been very stigmatized,” she adds. “But cities must recognize women’s right to the city.”
Yet Escalante and officials in Nantes recognize the mammoth task ahead, particularly amid large-scale and rising misogyny globally.
A report published in March by UN Women found that a woman or girl is killed every 10 minutes by a family member or intimate partner.
In Nantes, authorities have to contend with far-right, anti-feminist critics on social media, as well as painful state budget cuts. “Everyone says it’s a priority, but no one puts money on the table,” says Bertu.
But the UN report also found that, as in Nantes, there have been some gains when it comes to better rights and representation. Since 1995, countries have enacted 1,531 legal reforms advancing gender equality, maternal mortality has dropped by a third, and the number of women in parliaments has more than doubled.
To better track the impact of its efforts, Nantes is working on establishing goals for key indicators such as female employment.
“It’s not easy to change patriarchal society, but we have to try,” says Bertu.
The post The French City Striving to Stamp Out Sexism appeared first on Reasons to be Cheerful.
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