-----Original Message-----
From: On Behalf Of Monk, Janice J - (jmonk)
This report addresses a project on naming of streets initiated by an Italian
geographer.
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From: Women's eNews [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, May 18, 2012 2:16 AM
To: Women's eNews
Subject: Sardinian Town Bows to Italy's 'Pink-Street' Project
Women's eNews
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Covering Women's Issues - Changing Women's Lives
http://www.womensenews.org
Sardinian Town Bows to Italy's 'Pink-Street' Project
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By Valeria Marchetti
WeNews correspondent
Friday, May 18, 2012
Italy has very few women's names on its signs for streets and plazas,
according to female geographers. In an effort to end this "cultural
invisibility," they are pushing for a 50-50 division in male-female
signage.
ROME (WOMENSENEWS)--Street names in Italy are still being counted, but
one village isn't waiting to add more women to their signs, as an
advocacy group here began urging earlier this year.
On March 8, International Women's Day, Olmedo, a village among
Sardinia's 377 councils, agreed to name 19 places after important
women.
That brings Olmedo, with 19 percent of its signs dedicated to women,
almost in line with Norway's Oslo, a global frontrunner in female
signage, at 20 percent.
Among the new names on Olmedo's streets will be Nilde Iotti, the first
female president of the chamber of Italy's parliament, and Elsa
Morante, a writer and poet who died in 1985.
"Other Italian municipalities are seriously considering our proposal,
such as the cities of Potenza and Catania," said Marina
Convertino, the webmaster of a Rome-based site that began a gender
census in January of the country's street names. The group, with a
name that translates as Feminine Toponymy, began collecting names of
notable Italian women that city councils use on their street signs.
Feminine Toponymy's volunteers have e-mailed every city council in
Italy, said Convertino. In the e-mail they proposed that leaders of
local governments commit to dedicating half of their street and place
signs to notable women from Italy and around the world.
Few Collaborations
Feminine Toponymy said they've been able to collaborate with only 290
Italian counsels, or less than 1 percent of the total councils in the
country. Puglia is the most collaborative region, with 125 counsels
having agreed to count their "pink streets." But several
regions--including Tuscany, Liguria, Trentino Alto Adige and
Umbria--haven't replied to the proposal.
Italy ranks average in its male-female signage among European
countries, where roughly 5 percent of signs carry the names of women.
Toponymy, the study of place names, is a matter of interest to Maria
Pia Ercolini, a professor of geography at Rome's Giulio Verne
College, who founded the campaign.
"During my research, I realized that women are culturally invisible,"
Ercolini said in a recent email interview. "For that reason I decided
to share information about this kind of gender discrimination and put
pressure on every single township in Italy, so that 50 percent of the
streets, squares or gardens would be named after women."
Most female streets names in Italy pay homage to saints, the Virgin
Mother, religious benefactress and nuns. Only about 2 percent of
street and place names are dedicated to Italy's female writers,
scientists or national heroines.
Facebook Project
Ercolini started the project through a Facebook page, which has
attracted over 3,000 people interested in joining as supporters. From
there, webmaster Convertino converted the group into a dedicated
website. The group now claims about 100 volunteers who carry out the
campaign and recruit others to collaborate with the initiative.
The group is also branching out. It recently launched "Toponomy on
Campus" to count the internal streets of every university, seeking 50
percent representation on campus signs of Italian female scientists,
politicians, scholars and writers.
Barbara Belotti, a volunteer in charge of the "pink streets" census in
Rome, said 600 streets in that city out of 16,067 bear women's names.
Many Roman streets are dedicated to famous cities and places. But when
those are excluded, the streets named after humans are
disproportionately male: 47 percent compared to less than 4 percent
female.
Belotti said that while most of the female-named Roman streets are
dedicated to Catholic figures, 10.7 percent pay homage to pagan Roman
goddesses such as Venus, Minerva and Artemis.
Francesca Zajczyk, a professor of sociology at Bicocca University in
Milan, has joined the push for more female street names in the
country's famous fashion capital. Delegates are still evaluating the
proposal, but she said she doesn't have high hopes.
"Quite frankly I believe it will be very hard to achieve 50 percent of
streets named after women in a short time," she said.
Valeria Marchetti is an Italian journalist based in Rome.
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