Aurelia, a spokeswoman for the organization, explained the motivation behind their guerrilla marketing campaign, which coincides with the 45th anniversary of the women’s liberation movement, to The Local. “Little kids walking around Paris will subconsciously be taking in the history of France through things like street signs. They’ll think that France was built by great men – but it’s important they know about the important women too.â€
One thing the organization has made very clear is that they are not looking for the streets currently named after men to be changed to women’s names. Rather, they want to see changes made to the 32% of streets in Paris that contain proper nouns, like Rue de la Chappelle, for example.
So #valuingwomen is not just a problem when it comes to U.S. paper currency or NYC’s Central Park. This Parisian campaign calls attention to another glaring example of the global epidemic of a lack of visibility, in public places and on national symbols, of great women who have made and continue to make invaluable contributions to society and the world at large.