National push to represent women in roads and statues

The move is designed to usher in cultural change by increasing the commemoration of notable Australian women.

The state government has also promised to make pads and tampons free in public places, invest in women's health research, and encourage men to take on more caring roles.

It follows a national push to recognise women in public spaces after research found that Australia has more statues of animals than of women.

Research conducted by gender equality campaigners A Monument of One's Own found that less than 15 per cent of Australia's statues in six capital cities are women, of that 95 per cent are non-Indigenous.

There are just six public statues of women in the city of Sydney, including two of Queen Victoria and one of saint Mary MacKillop.

The first statue of notable women was unveiled this year in Canberra, celebrating Dame Dorothy Tangney and Dame Enid Lyons who became the first Australian women to enter Federal Parliament in 1943.

There are two other statues of women in the sculpture garden of the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, they are "Patriotism" and "War".

In Melbourne and Brisbane, women make up only 15 per cent of statues. Meanwhile there are over 110 statues of Captain Cook in Australia.

Roads follow a similar pattern, with women vastly underrepresented.

In 2018 Wollongong councillors committed to amend the local Road Naming Policy to use relevant local, cultural, historic or natural themes when naming roads to ensure there is gender equality.

"If you judged us by our street names, you would assume that there were either hardly any women living in our city, or that they made no contribution to our public life," Greens councillor Mithra Cox said at the time.

The Victorian government has allocated $2.7 billion for initiatives that directly address women's needs in the 2023-24 state budget.

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