France: A mayor in France stated that his town’s name would change to feminine for a year to promote gender equality.
The decision was made by Mr. Bertrand Kern, the socialist mayor of Pantin, a town outside of Paris, in a video message posted on Twitter.
“Pantin will for a year be called Pantine, equality between women and men” and the struggle to end “violence against women,” the mayor remarked.
A noun can often be made feminine in French by adding an ‘e’ at the end. The mayor hoped it would be “a wake-up call for this equality between women and men, which is still not perfect even if there have been improvements in recent years.”
Mr. Kern claimed that men don’t usually well accept women’s place in society and that they are still less well-paid than men. The mayor’s office noted that there would be no changes to road signs on the outskirts of town, or in the municipality’s official communications.
[VOEUX DU MAIRE @BertrandKern]
Bertrand Kern présente ses vœux aux Pantinois pour cette nouvelle année.
Et en 2023, la ville de #Pantin s’engage résolument pour l’égalité femmes-hommes et devient Pantine.
La suite ci-dessous ? pic.twitter.com/ygpLKirftS— Ville de Pantin (@VilledePantin) January 2, 2023
On social media, the revelation has sparked a barrage of jokes, with many users suggesting crude feminine equivalents for other French towns. But others have seen in it a welcome media stunt to revive the debate on gender disparities. France ranked 15th worldwide in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index 2022. Feminist collective Nous Toutes counted 145 femicides in France last year.
