A study proves it.
Streets aren’t just places of passage. They are daily narratives.
Every plaque tells the story of who we consider worthy of public memory and contributes to shaping our collective imagination.
A recent study published on Lavoce.info (“Streets that speak: toponymy without women”) shows that toponymy truly influences gender perceptions, especially among young people.
The most significant result is this: A one percentage point increase in the share of streets named after women is associated with a 1.4–1.7% increase in the likelihood that a young person does not consider men to be better political leaders than women.
These are not empty symbols, therefore, but culture taking shape in urban space.
There’s another interesting finding: the positive correlation between female toponymy and perceptions of equality is stronger in municipalities where streets named after women commemorate secular figures—women who have played a leading role in science, art, politics, and society.
This tells us that toponymy can be a concrete tool for promoting gender equality, capable of impacting stereotypes even before explicit opinions. A silent, everyday, and incredibly powerful form of education.
This is the direction in which the work we, as the Digital Territories and Communities Group of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Turin, are pursuing with digital civic technologies.
Specifically, the Emilia-Romagna Region’s Digital Agenda, as part of the Emilia-Romagna Thematic Community’s activities on the Digital Gender Gap, in collaboration with Lepida ScpA, has developed a tool with FirstLife to support participatory women’s urban planning projects called the Digital Map of the Feminine and Plural City.
This participatory map makes women’s contributions visible in public spaces and in collective memory, and encourages us to rethink cities as more equitable and inclusive places, starting with women’s toponymy, with an AI-powered mapping of municipal streets.
