Sanja Horvatincic

Beneath the landmark red-brick bridge in the town of Sisak, some 50 kilometres from the Croatian capital Zagreb, there's an unusual statue.

It depicts seven small children standing or sitting around a rock in a - now dried-up - pool of water. Nothing about it suggests its purpose.

The Zagreb city authorities last month turned down an opportunity to begin to rectify the gender imbalance in Zagreb's streets, where only 1.8 per cent of public spaces have female names.

They rejected a petition from a local association to name a street after one of three women, choosing another man instead.