By Tom Cowie
Think of it as the gender “way” gap. Or road, street and highway.
There isn’t a complete picture of the gender breakdown of Victorian road names. But a survey of 5000 places and roads found more than 1400 across Victoria are named after men, compared with 200 honouring women. A new campaign is focused on rebalancing that disparity by taking recommendations from the public.
Bourke Street is named after Sir Richard Bourke, who served as the governor of NSW. Credit: Gabriele Charlotte
The state government expects population growth will create another 6000 places that need names over the next three years, including new streets, suburbs and schools. The target is to name 70 per cent of all new places after women.
Geographic Names Victoria, the body that oversees the naming of the state’s localities, is accepting nominations of significant women who have been influential in areas such as healthcare, science, the arts or public service.
Cowan Lane in Carlton was named earlier this year.
Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny said place names sent a message about which contributions were considered valuable.
“For too long Victoria has not recognised the incredible women who have helped shape our state,” she said. “We’re asking Victorians to help us change this for the better.”
Recently, the City of Melbourne named a new lane in Carlton after Dr Ethel Mary Vaughan Cowan, the first female doctor at the Melbourne Free Hospital for Sick Children, now known as the Royal Children’s Hospital.
As part of the process, names that are submitted by the public will be reviewed and then sent to a local council if deemed suitable. Those names will then be put in a “name bank” for use when something needs naming.
To be considered for recognition, the person nominated must be dead and to have left a lasting legacy. They must also have had a long association with the local area where the place is. Councils will try to contact the nominated person’s family to get their agreement.
Clare Wright, a history professor at La Trobe University, has been raising awareness over a similar issue – the overwhelming lack of statues in public spaces dedicated to women, compared with men.
Professor Clare Wright, with the statue Landmark, by Charles Robb, hopes to overturn ideas about public statues.Credit: Paul Jeffers
In 2021, her lobby group, A Monument of One’s Own, conducted a survey of Melbourne’s 580 public statues. It found 36 were of women and just nine represented historical, named women, rather than allegorical or symbolic figures.
“Names matter because they become a record and a register of the historical memory of a nation,” Wright said.
“And like statues, when you don’t see buildings or bridges or parks named after certain people, then that tells you who is important and who isn’t.”
She said the disparity in historical naming practices led to what she described as the “respect gap”, which needed to be combatted with positive discrimination, in favour of women and other unrepresented groups.
“These people existed. They lived here, they breathed here, they worked here, they contributed to the city that we all live in,” she said.
“We’re constantly told who to honour and who not to honour. Then we internalise that just by moving around our cities.”
The campaign also wants to encourage the use of names from diverse communities, including First Nations people.
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