How FCB Brasil Literally Brought The Gender Equality Fight to The Streets

São Paulo, the largest city in Latin America, has 11,253,503 inhabitants, 5,924,871 of which are women. However, only 16% of the city's streets that honour prominent people are named after women, whereas eighty-four percent are named after men, according to a survey carried out by ProScore.

 

In light of this information, the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo launched the Project 16% campaign. The action was conceived by FCB Brasil and launched on São Paulo's anniversary, January 25. Nominations and voting took place on the newspaper's website estadao.com.br/16porcento, where people could nominate and vote for great women who deserved to have streets named after them.

 

On International Women's Day (March 8), Estadão and FCB Brasil went to the São Paulo City Council and delivered the first database of women nominated to be honoured with public spaces named after them. The document, which contained the names of 300 women and their accomplishments, was delivered to 55 council members. The list included names such as Tomie Ohtake, Hilda Hilst, Dorina Nowill, Ruth Cardoso, Zélia Gattai, among other prominent Brazilian women.

 

The website received over 6 million votes and council members Adriana Ramalho and Quito Formiga presented three new bills to the City Council proposing that more public spaces in São Paulo be named after women.