To travel on the Paris métro is to take a journey through French – and world – history. Honoured with a station name are war heroes, statesmen, artists and writers including Charles de Gaulle, Markos Botsaris, Franklin D Roosevelt and Victor Hugo.

But notable by their absence are women. Only four of the 303 stops on 16 lines are named after female figures, French or otherwise.

Now, with two new stations being created on a central line extension, French feminists say it is time to end the snub. The campaign group Osez le féminisme (Dare to be a feminist) is urging people to vote for a woman in an online consultation that offers six possible names – three male and three female – that closes on 17 June.

“Did you know that in Paris only four métro stations out of 303 make reference to a woman … You want to change that? So vote!” the organisation writes on its Facebook page.

Raphaëlle Rémy-Leleu, a spokeswoman, told the Observer: “We have to rename a few more existing stations after women. Most stations make reference to the exploits of what we call in France the Grands Hommes, but we have some great women who also deserve to be recognised. Unfortunately, this is not reflected in the métro which is an example of how France continues to ignore the role of women in its history.”

Among the proposed new station names are the French singer-songwriter Barbara – born Monique Andrée Serf – who died in 1997; Lucie Aubrac, a member of the French Resistance who died in 2007; and the American singer Nina Simone, who died in 2003.

Osez le Feminisme is campaigning for the new stations to be named after women. Photograph: Alamy

Last month, the Europe stop on line 3 was renamed Europe-Simone Veil in honour of the health minister and Auschwitz survivor, who died last year. The three other stations named after women are Barbès-Rochechouart, a tribute to Marguerite de Rochechouart de Montpipeau, who was abbess of Montmartre; Pierre et Marie Curie, after the Nobel prize-winning physicists, and Louise Michel, a Paris Commune militant.

There is a Rosa Parks station on the RER suburban rail network in north Paris, named after the American civil rights activist.

Rémy-Leleu said: “Historically, we have effaced women from transport. In fact, the situation is even worse than reported, because of those four stations, only one is not part of a composite name and that is Louise Michel, a station that’s not actually in Paris intra mures [within the city walls].”

Last November, President Emmanuel Macron said his country was “sick with sexism” and declared gender equality and combating violence against women to be a “great cause” of his presidency.

In March, following a backlash led by the actor Catherine Deneuve against the #MeToo movement that enraged feminists, the government said it would promote gender equality in education, the workplace and daily life, including fines for sexual harassment in public places.

Progress, however, is slow. Last year, for the first time since the modern exam was introduced more than 20 years ago, a book by a woman was among the required works for the literary baccalauréat. La Princesse de Montpensier is a 17th-century court romance by Madame de La Fayette.

Françoise Cahen, who teaches at a lycée in a south-eastern suburb of Paris, set up a successful petition calling for the education authorities to address the sexism. Last week, while adjudicating at an oral baccalauréat exam she was shocked to discover that not one of the texts given to 300 pupils to study had been written by a woman.

Only four of the 303 stops on the network are named after women. Photograph: C. Sappa/Getty Images

“It was so depressing. Things are slowly but surely getting better, but there’s still some way to go,” Cahen said. “The publishers of school books are making a lot of effort to improve the proportion of women writers and so things are moving forward but gradually.”

Osez le féminisme’s Métro campaign has been criticised by those suggesting there are more important issues. Rémy-Leleu admits the station campaign is “symbolic”, but points out that the group is also pushing for lesbian couples and single women to be given the same access to fertility treatment as heterosexual couples. It is also running a protest against a concert tour by Bertrand Cantat, a rock star who was convicted of killing his partner Marie Trintignant in 2003.

France has a history of naming roads or railway stations after celebrated figures, even foreigners. Last November, the Burgundy town of Avallon named a street after Jo Cox, the MP for Batley and Spen who was killed during the Brexit campaign in June 2016. But this is the first time métro station names will be chosen by the public. They are due to open in June 2021.