Wednesday, February 02, 2022

The Sexist Streets of Budapest

Last week I published in The Sexist Streets of the World what I thought was a fairly comprehensive list of interactive maps visualizing the sexist traditions of street naming in cities around the globe. That post includes interactive maps which show how in city after city there are more streets named for men than there are streets named for women. However that list wasn't quite as comprehensive as I thought, as I omitted the very impressive 'Names & Spaces: Budapest'.

Names & Spaces: Budapest is a fascinating mapped analysis of the street names (& other public spaces) of Budapest.This map reveals that in Budapest 90% of streets which have been named for people have been named for men. Only 10% of the city's roads named for people have been named for famous females. This is almost exactly the same percentage (9%) of streets that has been named for fictional characters. In Budapest 208 public spaces have been named after fictional characters and only 224 public spaces have been named for  women.Of the 224 public spaces which have been given female names only 123 are named after real women.Therefore there are more streets in Budapest named for fictional characters than there are streets named after real women.

Names & Spaces: Budapest also looks at the number of streets named for Hungarians (1,816) and the number named for foreigners (206). The map also breaks down the city streets named for people by occupation. Of the different occupations recognized in Budapest's street names writers & poets have the most city streets. The next most recognized occupational group is statesmen & politicians. Soldiers and artists are among some of the other occupations which feature prominently in Budapest street names. 

Further analysis explores the periods of history with the most people represented in Budapest's street names. This analysis also looks at the history of renaming streets and public spaces. For example after the country's transition to democracy in 1989 many public spaces were renamed to replace streets and squares named for communist heroes. 

Via: The Data Vis Dispatch

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