The Women Replacing Spain's Franco-Era Street Names

General Francisco Franco is out — and Rosa Parks might be in. That’s the current trend in Spain, where several city governments are using laws designed to remove symbols of Franco’s dictatorship as a way to correct the gender imbalance among street names around the country.

Though Franco died in 1975, many streets and squares still bear his and his associates’ names, surviving under a policy of forgiving and forgetting the crimes committed during his rule. Now, they’re finally being swept away, and a clutch of major cities are using the opportunity to commemorate more women, who currently lend their names to just 5 percent of Spain’s streets. The changes might rattle some traditionalists, and also annoy Spain’s lingering fascist sympathizers, but they also seem long overdue. So why now?