Strong Women in the City

Leuven a male bastion? Think again: women have always played an important role in our city. We start at the town hall, where 16 of the 236 statues depict women: saints, noblewomen and one bourgeois woman. In the pedestals, you will see Eve, with whom it all began, as well as the chaste Susanna and Solomon’s judgement. At the University Hall, we discuss the gender balance at KU Leuven. On Hogeschoolplein, we shine a light on women of ill repute, while at the Maria Theresa College we explore this empress’s feminism ahead of its time. On Naamsestraat, we pause at the statue of Renée. In De Bériotstraat, we tell the story of violinist De Bériot’s romance with ‘La Malibran’. At Atrecht College, the university first welcomed what Mgr Van Wayenbergh considered the greatest danger of the age: “woman”. In Schapenstraat, we meet the Black Sisters and Jeanne Cardijn. At Damiaanplein, we pause to consider the work of Cicercule Paridaens. Finally, on Oude Markt, we highlight businesswoman Johanna Maria Artois and the fact that married women were only allowed to open a current account without their husband’s permission from 1976 onwards.