Independent cartographer Gaëlle Sutton has unveiled a striking visual tribute titled 'Les absentes' (The Absentees), mapping the victims of femicides in France for 2026. The project, shared on LinkedIn at the beginning of November, uses the names of women—Pascale, Betty, Latifa, and others—linked by lines to form the geographic contours of metropolitan France. This work was initiated during the #30DayMapChallenge, an annual event encouraging cartographers to display their work throughout November. Sutton, an independent expert, stated her goal was to highlight important yet often invisible societal issues, particularly violence against women, through her medium. [1]
The data underpinning Sutton's map comes primarily from the feminist collective #NousToutes, which already utilizes cartographic formats to visualize gender-based violence. However, Sutton differentiated her approach by focusing exclusively on the current year's victims. She aimed to demonstrate that femicide is an ongoing reality, 'now,' rather than a historical archive. The map is designed to show that behind each point are individuals with identities and connections, moving beyond anonymous statistics to a form of homage, which Sutton aligns with the collective's concept of 'femmage.' [1]
Sutton deliberately chose to display only the first names of the victims, avoiding ages or supplementary information to keep the focus on their identity rather than a mere geographical count. She excluded cases where the victim's name was not present in her database, refusing to label them anonymously as 'a woman' or 'an unidentified person,' though she considers adding a simple dot to represent these unknown victims in future iterations. The map reflects a higher number of femicides than depicted points, indicating the prevalence of the crime. She also noted challenges in representing overseas territories, where only three names were recorded, appearing incorrectly to the west of the main map. [1]
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