The project
Streets, squares, monuments and parks bear men’s names in most cities in the world. Very few have made the gesture of paying attention to women, thereby reflecting a historical reality that has hidden their role in the different realms of public life.
Starting with this reflection and by way of directly addressing this imbalance, in 2019 the US artist and director Rebecca Solnit came up with the “City of Women” project, consisting of symbolically renaming all the metro stations in New York with women’s names. London joined in with the initiative in 2022, and now in 2023 Barcelona is doing the same.
For 8 March this year, all the stops on the metro network and the urban stops on the FGC train network are symbolically adopting the names of women writers, activists, teachers, politicians, singers, actresses, journalists, chefs, sportswomen, doctors, researchers, poets and a long list of other women past and present whose contributions are of significant value.
How the featured women were chosen
The metro map “Barcelona. City of Women” is jointly published by Barcelona City Council and Haymarket Books. The project was directed by Professor Núria Ricart Ulldemolins, with the support of an advisory editorial board made up of Mary Nash, Mercè Otero, Marta Mas, Salima Jirari and Dolors Marín, and the backing of numerous women’s organisations in the city that have helped represent the enormous existing wealth and diversity within the limits of the 153 stations making up the project.
The result is a diverse and cross-cutting mapping that challenges the multiple forms of invisibility that women have been subjected to in terms of recognising the value of people that are important to the city. Women role models from our past, and living and today's women. A mapping rooted to our local area, with leading figures not only in terms of professional development, but also women recognised in neighbourhood struggles, role models for feminism and the LBTI+ community, activists in intercultural and anti-fascist struggles and a long etcetera of other women past and present whose contributions to our city and our society are of huge value.