by Coletivo TURBA (Paula Motta, Renata Saffer and Roberta de Alencastro)
Abstract
We, as the collective Turba, have developed the research "Feminine Representation in the City" to understand a little bit more about the historical participation of women in the city of Porto Alegre. Instigated by the book "Logradouros públicos em Porto Alegre: presença feminina na denominação" by the councilwoman Maria Celeste (2007), which reports information such as the year of creation of the streets that were named after women, the memory and history of these women and their participation in society; we decided to map these streets to understand in the territory where these memories and representations are found.
Keywords
cartography, feminist urbanism, invisibility, streetscapes, representativeness, urbanism and gender, data
Female Representativity in the City
As the collective Turba, we have engaged in this research: "Feminine Representation in the City" to understand the historical participation of women in the city of Porto Alegre.
The book "Logradouros públicos em Porto Alegre: presença feminina na denominação" by the councilwoman Maria Celeste (2007) instigated us. It reports the year of creation of the streets named after women, the memory and history of these women, and their participation in society; we decided to map these streets to understand the territory where these memories and representations.
To complement this research with more updated data, we sought information about the new streets created in the city as of 2007 and began an analysis to obtain statistical data such as a comparison between genders, historical series, categories, and names of these streets.
From the observation of the data, we arrived at very significant results, which demonstrate the feminine invisibility in our cities. The percentage of squares and parks, public and democratic places, with female names is minimal. No park is named after a woman and, only 7% of all city squares pay homage to women. The same is true when we compare streets and avenues concerning the total, as the following cards show.
We believe that understanding data is fundamental to understanding the patriarchalism of our society, where men have always been seen and recognized for their public life due to their positions of power. We also see that a large part of the women honored in the city's public squares are the "Donas" owners of the land together with their husbands, and because of this, they receive this recognition. Another majority are religious representatives, while a few are recognized by occupation as teachers and doctors. It is worth noting that these professions are directly related to care, a task culturally attributed to the female gender.
Beyond the data analysis, this research is also a call for the communities and representatives of the City Council to pay attention to the importance of female representation in our cities for future generations.
"Naming the streets implies participation. A street name says a lot about the population living there, which, through available means, can indicate which personality or fact they wish to see honored, highlighted, remembered. In this way, naming places is no longer a simple act; it begins to confer social identity." (Maria Celeste, 2007)
The map is online by the link https://bit.ly/RepresentaFemininaPOA or by reading the QRCODE below. The map shows all the streets and squares named after women and a brief biography of each of them.
Reference
Celeste, Maria. Logradouros públicos em Porto Alegre: presença feminina na denominação. Rosa Ângela Fontes (org.). - Porto Alegre : Gráfica da UFRGS, 2007. 139 p. : 15x21 cm.
About TURBA:
Turba is a Brazilian women's collective that encourages gender equality in cities through collaborative actions in urban space. Since 2018, we have been working on projects that put the female experience at the center of the debates, thus making visible the agendas advocated for the construction of a broadly inclusive city. The projects are plural and cover several scales such as activist, educational, participatory, and research actions. Through our work, we aim for collective constructions of replicable projects. And we believe that women's network construction is the best way for a collective output.
Composed by Paula Motta, Renata Saffer, and Roberta de Alencastro.
Team Information: Coletivo Turba
contato.turba@gmail.com
Porto Alegre, Brazil
Alice Albuquerque e Souza de Oliveira - Designer, Co-founder of Turba
Paula Motta - Architect and Urban Planner, Co-founder Turba
Renata Saffer - Architect and Urban Planner, Co-founder of Turba
Roberta Gascue de Alencastro - Architect and Urban Planner, Co-founder of Turba
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