About

The census

The project "Les rues au féminin" (The streets of women) launched in 2009, for the first time identified the exact number of streets in Luxembourg that bear the name of a woman. The census has clearly highlighted the modest place that has been reserved for women in public life throughout history: only 1.5 percent of streets have been dedicated to women compared to 17 percent of streets bearing a man's name.

The municipal bodies for equality between women and men as well as the municipal political leaders have followed our call to bring deserving women out of oblivion and to give them a place in our historical heritage. Consequently, in 2015, the new census of streets in Luxembourg shows that the number of women to whom a street has been dedicated increased from 57 to 87. The rate was almost 2 percent. The percentage rate for men remained around 17 percent.

The observation: a slow but certain progress

In 2022, the rate of women, to whom the municipal authorities have dedicated a street is currently 2.5%. 134 women officially have a street named after them.

The portraits pay homage to women who have distinguished themselves in various fields ranging from art to politics, including science, resistance and even sport. To keep the entirety of the project, the CNFL took over the existing portraits of the 2015 brochure to which it added the new biographies. They are distinguished by another color and are marked in bold in the table of contents.

Remember that these are portraits that are sometimes incomplete, or even non-existent, given the period of the lives of these women, sometimes free of historical accounts or, in the case of the portraits of saints, sometimes legendary. We therefore count on your indulgence.

The brochure is only available in French.

The third part of the project consists of lists of proposals from visionary, committed or courageous women who we believe deserve to have a street named after them. These lists were drawn up on the initiative of the CNFL and the municipal gender equality bodies. They can be viewed below.

On request, we can provide a biography of the proposed women to interested municipalities.