Spain Gets Rid of Fascist Named Streets to Honor Women Instead

Due to a continuously changing political map, Spain will no longer be the home of General Franco Street – instead, several cities in the Spanish nation will be renaming their fascist road names to honor women.

Currently, only about 5% of the nation’s streets are named after females, most of which are religious figures and saints. The gender imbalance is not specific to Spain – a government survey of 7 major world cities found that only 27.5% of streets were named after women.

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Ever since Franco’s rule ended in nearly 40 years ago, the Spanish government only enforced a law promising to rededicate all public spaces named after autocratic heritage in 2007. The problem is only just now being addressed because of the change in municipal politics since the 2015 elections.

Several cities such as Bilbao, Oviedo, and Càdiz plan on correcting the imbalance by renaming 80% of their streets with civil rights activists, physicists, artists, novelists, famous journalists, and revolutionaries during Franco’s regime. Some roads will ever honor international women of talent and inspiration, such as Frida Kahlo, Rosa Parks, and Jane Austen.

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