Alternative Montreal metro map celebrates women’s contributions

In 5 seconds Following in the footsteps of New York, London and Barcelona, Montreal now has its own alternative metro map paying tribute to the remarkable women who have contributed to its development.

“Next stop: Gabrielle Roy!”

What if Montreal’s metro map were redrawn and the stations renamed after the women who helped make the city what it is today?

Gabrielle Roy’s name could ring out as the train pulls into Saint-Henri, the neighbourhood she immortalized in her novel The Tin Flute. Irma LeVasseur and Justine Lacoste-Beaubien would be natural choices for the station nearest the Sainte-Justine Hospital they founded. And every day, thousands of people could transfer between the orange and blue lines at Lhasa de Sela station, named in honour of the acclaimed world-music artist whose death at age 37 in 2010 left a city in mourning.

Launched today on International Women’s Rights Day, the Montreal, City of Women alternative metro map introduces or reintroduces the public to key figures in the metropolis's history and society, many of whom have been conspicuously absent from the official toponymy.

“Take Yvonne Maisonneuve, founder of Le Chaînon,” said author and scholar Chantal Ringuet, who launched the project with the support of Université de Montréal and in collaboration with the Société de transport de Montréal. “She dedicated her life to the cause of vulnerable women but has never received the recognition she deserves. We wanted to turn the spotlight also on trailblazers like her who didn't get their due.”

Ringuet has been working for years in the fields of collective memory, women’s literature and Montreal culture. She sees Montreal, City of Women as a call to Montrealers to revisit their city and its history.

“When Chantal Ringuet came to us with this idea, we didn’t hesitate to offer her the university’s support,” said Jean-François Gaudreault-DesBiens, UdeM's vice-rector of strategic planning and communications.

“At a time when women’s rights are under threat in many parts of the world, this project couldn’t be more relevant. It is also very much in line with our mission of disseminating knowledge and promoting the common good.”

Inspired by New York

Chantal Ringuet

Montreal, City of Women was inspired by the New York, City of Women alternative subway map conceived by author Rebecca Solnit and geographer Joshua Jelly-Shapiro. That project made a big impact in 2016 and has since been replicated in London and Barcelona.

“Now Montreal has become the first French-speaking city in the world to have a City of Women map,” said Gaudreault-DesBiens.

“Although the names of the metro stations aren’t actually being changed, we needed the STM to sign on to the project, as the transit authorities in the other cities did before us,” he added, noting that the STM readily embraced the concept.

“The biggest challenge in assigning women’s names to the stations was the relatively modest size of the Montreal metro, which has only 68 stations,” said Ringuet. “In the first City of Women project in New York, there were 472!”

Six members of the UdeM community helped select the names to be honoured here: professor and women’s historian Denyse Baillargeon, philosophy professor Ryoa Chung, dean of music Nathalie Fernando, associate vice-rector for relations with Indigenous peoples Annie Pullen Sansfaçon, museologist and UdeM alumna Estelle Brunet, and television personality and alumna Sophie Fouron.

The advisory committee endorsed personalities from many fields: scientists, writers, artists, activists. They could be living or deceased, as long as they’ve had a lasting impact on Montreal.

“We wanted to create an inclusive map,” said Ringuet. “To bridge past, present and future, we had to set strict criteria to ensure a balance between generations, fields and communities.

Names from 1831 on

"You may notice'" she added, "that some foundational figures, such as Jeanne Mance, are missing. That’s because we decided to start from 1831, the year of Montreal’s incorporation. That’s a time closer to our own age, not long before the dawn of modernity and new emancipatory opportunities for women.”

The committee also wanted to recognize women from historically marginalized groups. So, along with La Bolduc and Pauline Julien, there are stations named after Haitian-born pediatrician-hematologist Yvette Bonny, Indigenous activist Mary Two-Axe Early, and trans rights pioneer Marie-Marcelle Godbout.

The alternative metro map is available on the Montreal, City of Women website and as a poster, in a notebook, and on postcards and tote bags that can be purchased online or at the following outlets: UdeM bookstores, the Canadian Centre for Architecture gift shop, Buk&Nola, Affiche en tête, Bref! Montréal, Articho, Jamais assez and Espace Flo. All profits will be used to fund scholarships for new UdeM students.

All involved hope the public will take ownership of the map.

“I’d like it to become a living tool,” said Gaudreault-DesBiens. “For example, it could be used in high-school history classes or the Quebec culture-and-citizenship course to introduce students to these inspiring women and their contributions to our world.”

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Geneviève O'Meara
Université de Montréal
Phone: 514-343-6111, ext. 77040