Anne Hidalgo’s Feminist Urbanism: Reshaping Paris for All. Our third feature on International Women’s Month

The French capital is being reimagined through the lens of equity, sustainability, and community—and what it means for the future of cities.

On a crisp autumn morning along the Seine, the rhythm of the city feels different. Where traffic once snarled and honked, children now chase bubbles blown by street performers, and couples linger over coffees at pop-up cafés. This metamorphosis—a highway turned promenade—is no accident. It is the work of Anne Hidalgo, Paris’s first woman mayor, whose vision for the City of Light extends far beyond cobblestone charm. Over the past decade, Hidalgo has quietly upended centuries of urban tradition, recasting Paris as a laboratory for feminist urbanism: a philosophy that asks not just how cities look, but who they are built for. 

The Architect of Equity  

Hidalgo’s story is as unconventional as her policies. Born in Andalusia, Spain, she immigrated to Lyon at age two, becoming a French citizen in her teens—an outsider’s perspective that now defines her governance. “Cities,” she told Le Monde in 2022, “have always been designed by and for men. Think of Haussmann’s wide boulevards, built to control crowds and move armies. But what about the mother rushing her child to daycare? The elderly woman navigating uneven sidewalks? The girl biking to school?”  

This interrogation of urban space has fueled Hidalgo’s agenda since her 2014 election. Feminist urbanism is not about excluding men, but about designing for complexity: the school drop-offs, the grocery runs, the caregiving journeys that stitch together daily life. It is urban planning as social surgery, prioritizing accessibility, safety, and sustainability.  During her first term as Mayor of Paris she launched the city-wide Réinventer Paris ("Reinvent Paris") programme, which aimed at refurbishing and allocating obsolescent sites new uses, as well as opened a participatory budgeting platform for projects throughout the city.

At the start of her first term, Hidalgo stated in an interview that housing is her number one priority. Under Hidalgo's mayorship, Paris has produced 7,000 social housing units a year since Hidalgo took office, up from 5,000 a year under her predecessor. She aims for Paris to be 30 percent social housing by 2030. 

The 15-Minute City and the Art of Proximity  

Central to Hidalgo’s Paris is the ville du quart d’heure—the 15-minute city. The concept, hatched with urbanist Carlos Moreno, reimagines neighborhoods as self-sufficient ecosystems where work, school, healthcare, and leisure are all within a short walk or bike ride. Gone is the commuter’s grind; in its place, a mosaic of village-like enclaves.  

Critics initially dismissed it as utopian—(in planning and economics utopian is viewed as not pragmatic or not realistic). But today, the results pulse through arrondissements like the 14th, where a former parking garage now houses a preschool, a pharmacy, and a co-working space. I caught this bit in a translation of a local Paris paper:

“Before, I spent two hours daily on the metro,” says Léa Dupont, a graphic designer and unpartnered parent. “Now I can work, fetch my son, and buy bread without crossing the Seine. It’s like someone finally noticed our lives.”  

Pedestrians, Not Petrol  

Hidalgo’s Paris is a city reclaiming its streets. Since 2020, over 1,300 kilometers of bike lanes have spiderwebbed across the capital, including protected “coronapistes” installed during COVID. Cycling now accounts for 15 percent of trips—up from 3 percent in 2010—with women making up 56 percent of riders. The shift is visceral: Once-daunting arteries like Rue de Rivoli hum with cargo bikes and schoolgirls on Vélibs, Paris’s bike-share fleet.  

Then there’s the Seine. In 2016, Hidalgo pedestrianized a 3.3-kilometer stretch of riverside highway, despite outcry from drivers. Today, “Paris Plages” transforms the space each summer into a beach with deck chairs and kayaks, while year-round, it’s a haven for joggers and picnickers. “It’s democratized the river,” says urban sociologist Clément Barbier. “Before, only tourists saw the Seine from tour boats. Now it belongs to everyone.”  

Green Roots, Social Soil  

Hidalgo’s policies intertwine ecology and equity. Her administration has planted 170,000 trees since 2020, targeting heat-vulnerable neighborhoods like Belleville, where canopy cover has doubled. Affordable housing mandates (25 percent in new developments) aim to halt the exodus of working-class families, while urban farms sprout atop schools and hospitals. Even her controversial SUV parking fee hike—tripling rates for heavy vehicles—ties climate action to class: The wealthiest 10 percent own 60 percent of Paris’s cars.  

“This isn’t just about being ‘green,’” explains environmental economist Magali Reghezza. “It’s about recognizing that pollution and displacement hurt women and minorities first. Hidalgo sees climate policy as social policy.”  

Backlash and Balance  

Not all Parisians applaud. Small businesses grumble about lost parking; police unions blame bike lanes for slower emergency response. When Hidalgo proposed turning the Champs-Élysées into a “extraordinary garden,” critics called it a war on cars—and French identity. “Paris is becoming a playground for bobos [bourgeois bohemians],” dismissed far-right pundit Éric Zemmour.  

Yet, Hidalgo adapts. After protests, her team scaled back plans to pedestrianize areas around Place de la Concorde but expanded bike lanes in the working-class 19th arrondissement. Hidalgo views cities as conversations.

A Global Blueprint  

From Barcelona to Bogotá, mayors now study Paris’s experiment. Milan adopted its own 15-minute neighborhoods; Mexico City hired Hidalgo’s transit advisor. “She’s shifted the paradigm,” says Harvard urbanist Diane Davis. “Before, ‘smart cities’ meant tech and efficiency. Now, it’s about care and community.”  

As Hidalgo’s final term winds down, her legacy is etched in stone and soil. Air pollution has dropped 40 perecent since 2014. Public schools serve organic meals. The elderly gather in newly green places des villages. And on the Seine, where engines once roared, the only soundtrack is laughter—and the whir of bicycle wheels, spinning toward a reimagined city.  

In Paris, the future of urban life isn’t a distant dream. It’s already here, unfolding one street, one block, one liberated riverbank at a time.