French city feminises its name to fight gender inequality

For all of 2023, the city of Seine-Saint-Denis will be called Pantine. “We want to challenge, we want there to be awareness equality between women and men which is not yet perfect, even if there have been improvements in recent years”, explained the mayor, Bertrand Kern, in a video. “In 2023, Pantin is resolutely committed to equality between women and men.”

This name change is purely symbolic. “It will not appear in the official documents”, specifies the town hall. In the town streets, where posters touting this measure were affixed at the start of the week, the announcement seemed to surprise the inhabitants crossed this Tuesday afternoon, reports le Parisien. Fatiha, who has lived in this town of 59,000 inhabitants for “more than twenty years”, is clear about her views: “It’s cinema, and it won’t change anything. Pantine, moreover, it’s ugly. There are better things to do.”

On social media, people are not happy with the name change either. “While France is crumbling under inflation and insecurity, this puppet mayor has taken up a subject of capital importance: feminising the name of his commune”, tweets Nicolas Meizonnet, a member of Marine le Pens National Rally.

Symbolic

Beyond this symbolic decision, Pantin intends to launch other actions this year. In mid-January, an exhibition with the names of famous women will be installed on the gates of the town hall. The city also plans to create a place where the mechanisms for combating violence against women will be centralised. “Pantine” is not the first community in the department to take an interest in this question.

Its neighbour, Aubervilliers, hit by several femicides in recent years, has affixed a banner to the pediment of its town hall recalling that “women are born free and remain equal to men in rights”. At the end of November, it organised a conference against violence against women.