Barcelona elected a feminist government. Here’s what happened next.

When Esperanza Escribano complained on Twitter about harassment by a garbage truck driver in Barcelona, she got a reply from the local administration within minutes, asking her about the street and time of the incident and assuring her it wouldn’t happen again.

“Something changed on a symbolic level, but that in itself is really important. When I got the message, I felt much safer,” says Ms. Escribano, a journalist living in Barcelona.

In the past four years, the local government of Barcelona, led by Mayor Ada Colau, has put forward a strategy for the “feminization of politics” that tries to “incorporate the gender perspective in every area of politics and society,” as the city council website describes it. That has meant visible changes in how the city portrays gender roles, responds to sexual harassment and violence, and supports its female population. And Barcelona’s changes have been at the forefront

Urban planning with gender perspectiveA Spanish issue‘Feminism lacks a solid organization’