International Women’s Day
Mexico City wants to rename streets after women
A street in Mexico City could be named after singer Aretha Franklin. photo
© Mary Altaffer/AP
In Mexico’s capital, more than 90 percent of the streets are named after men. That should change now. How about an Aretha Franklin street?
A website has been set up where citizens can vote on name suggestions. The city administration suggested around 30 names of activists, singers and writers, most of them from Mexico. The list should be expanded through suggestions from citizens.
On the occasion of Women’s Day, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in the Mexican capital to demonstrate against violence against women and for gender equality. Posters read, among other things: “I deserve a life without fear,” “I’ll fight for them all” and “Mom, don’t worry, I won’t go out on the streets alone today.”
Although women in Mexico often suffer from sexual violence and are less involved in the labor market than men, the country of almost 130 million people is on the verge of a turnaround. In the upcoming presidential election on June 2nd, the most populous Spanish-speaking country is expected to have a female president for the first time because the two major party alliances have nominated women as top candidates.