Geneva Feminizes Its Traffic Signs To Promote Gender Equality But Not Everyone Is On Board
It’s difficult to comprehend that less than 100 years ago or even less than the-lifetime-of-a-human-being ago, women weren’t recognized as being equal to men politically, socially, or economically. It was a ‘man’s world’, and while the social change is obvious, to this day, no country worldwide can claim to have achieved gender equality.
Switzerland finally granted women the right to vote in 1971, being one of the last countries in Europe to follow the example of New Zealand which granted women’s suffrage decades before that. But what wasn’t written on the paper hasn’t fully translated into equal reality. Swiss women earn roughly 20 percent less than men and the media is booming with news about women strikes for wage gap, violence prevention, and recognition. And the government seems to actually pay attention. Geneva took a daring step in gender mainstreaming by permanently replacing half of the informational signs of pedestrian crossings with ‘feminized’ versions.
More info: Instagram | ville-geneve.ch
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Throughout history, public spaces were designed by men for men and we can still observe it nowadays. Since the existing road signs are representing men – some are evidently masculine, others with the pretext of neutrality – the government decided to go from 100% male to gender equal. 250 signs with women silhouettes were installed at pedestrian crossings all around the second-largest city in Switzerland.
Image credits: ville_de_geneve
“The omnipresence of stereotypical male representations in the public space, notably through traffic signs, reinforces the idea that some people, in particular women but also minorities, belong less than others,” said the mayor Sandrine Salerno on an official press release.
Image credits: ville_de_geneve
Image credits: ville_de_geneve
A pioneering project carried out in collaboration with the Department of Infrastructure of the State of Geneva aims to raise awareness about equality and diversity, and combat stereotypes by increasing the visibility of women in public spaces. It’s just part of a broad strategy of the city to fight inequality between men and women, and LGBTQ discrimination. The initiative cost the city 56,000 Swiss francs (approximately 52,000 euros). The next step to reinforce gender equality is to feminize street names in Geneva that are currently dominated by male names.
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The new female road signs not only manifest equality but celebrate diversity, too. They come in six versions to portray the inclusiveness and legitimacy, including a pregnant woman, an elderly woman with a cane, a gay couple, and an African-American. However, so far no changes to diversify current signs with male icons weren’t announced to the public but according to Salerno, they are not excluded.
Image credits: ville_de_geneve
Image credits: ville_de_geneve
Image credits: ville_de_geneve
Image credits: ville_de_geneve
Image credits: ville_de_geneve
Image credits: ville_de_geneve
Do these new road signs, in fact, direct society in the right direction? Gender equality is widely talked about but remains a sensitive topic, nevertheless. Each action to contribute to this cause, especially when it comes to political decisions, is analyzed through a magnifying glass as the line between feminism and pseudo-feminism is getting thinner.
The changes sparked a discussion on the internet with some people supporting the positive initiative, others pointing at flaws in the project and criticizing the way it contributes to equality. People discussed that this even adds to a stereotypical representation of women wearing dresses and heels, and backed the idea of generic vague stick figures instead of any complex designs that might indicate gender. Some of them accused the local government of wasting public money and trying to earn easy bonus points for ‘contributing to equality’ for show instead of taking important steps to actually ensure equality in the country.
People immediately started criticising the idea
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The city’s authorities say it’s not a gimmick but part of a broader plan to make a social change towards equality in public and inspire other cities to follow the example. “Initiative goes towards a necessary change of mentalities in terms of equality in all aspects of our society; showing diversity on official signs is not trivial, it is a concrete, visible and relevant contribution to global action in favor of equality,” said Serge Dal Busco, the state councilor in charge of infrastructure.
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Yes, yes, YES! lmao. Pretty sure in my lifetime I'm going to witness this come full circle. People have only so much capacity and I get the feeling our tolerance is already starting to come up full on the unwinnable battle to include all people all the time in all things.
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F#ck the road signs, how about some meaningful action such as paying women more?
This is so dumb. Feminists are not this petty to care abt stuff like this. IT DOESN'T matter, the only thing that matters is that the sign gets it's message across. Why don't they spend the money wasted on this on some real problems
No, most ACTUAL feminists are not this petty. No doubt there are some fake feminists out there who only want female roadsigns. I realise that I sound baity in this comment, but reading the comments of Buzzfeed etc really makes you hate people...
Load More Replies...
Sorry for all those political correct do-gooders, but the changed traffic signs have no legal status and will lead to law suits. There are international agreements on how a traffic sign looks and what it means. You just can't go around making different versions just because you think it's more pc. Besides that there are also going to be problems with the "self driving" cars that wouldn't recognize the pc traffic signs. Those who came up with the idea don't have a clue about traffic laws.
Those who want black people signs white people signs why don't we just make them all rainbow tie dye signs and have everyone possible mixed together I want the black asian white east asian (example Indian) Dutch Canadian signs probably missed a race or 2 but that is how stupid this is. What's next butthurt people saying the generic stick figure looks too man like and when skirts get put on that's too stereotypical because women wear pants too. People are starving on the streets but we need a bunch of f***ing signs
This is incredibly dumb. As a feminist I don't understand what's wrong with using the gender neutral stick figures (ones without skirts and what not)?
It's so the government looks like they're doing something.
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And so the Black person is represented by someone with stereotypical black hair?
All black people have tightly curled black hair naturally. What is not stereotypical black hair?
Load More Replies... So why would Switzerland have signs representing ""African Americans"? Black doesn't mean African and African doesn't mean Black. And not a all blacks in America are African American.
It really is very dumb how Americans refer to black people who are not American as "African-American"
Load More Replies... 
A lot of cultures, including advanced industrialized nations, do assume that people are men and women are something not-quiet-people. While I don't think the diversified signs are necessary, they do in a very small way change the culture to be more inclusive. I can't fault that.
Yes, yes, YES! lmao. Pretty sure in my lifetime I'm going to witness this come full circle. People have only so much capacity and I get the feeling our tolerance is already starting to come up full on the unwinnable battle to include all people all the time in all things.
Load More Replies... F#ck the road signs, how about some meaningful action such as paying women more?
This is so dumb. Feminists are not this petty to care abt stuff like this. IT DOESN'T matter, the only thing that matters is that the sign gets it's message across. Why don't they spend the money wasted on this on some real problems
No, most ACTUAL feminists are not this petty. No doubt there are some fake feminists out there who only want female roadsigns. I realise that I sound baity in this comment, but reading the comments of Buzzfeed etc really makes you hate people...
Load More Replies... Sorry for all those political correct do-gooders, but the changed traffic signs have no legal status and will lead to law suits. There are international agreements on how a traffic sign looks and what it means. You just can't go around making different versions just because you think it's more pc. Besides that there are also going to be problems with the "self driving" cars that wouldn't recognize the pc traffic signs. Those who came up with the idea don't have a clue about traffic laws.
Those who want black people signs white people signs why don't we just make them all rainbow tie dye signs and have everyone possible mixed together I want the black asian white east asian (example Indian) Dutch Canadian signs probably missed a race or 2 but that is how stupid this is. What's next butthurt people saying the generic stick figure looks too man like and when skirts get put on that's too stereotypical because women wear pants too. People are starving on the streets but we need a bunch of f***ing signs
This is incredibly dumb. As a feminist I don't understand what's wrong with using the gender neutral stick figures (ones without skirts and what not)?
It's so the government looks like they're doing something.
Load More Replies... And so the Black person is represented by someone with stereotypical black hair?
All black people have tightly curled black hair naturally. What is not stereotypical black hair?
Load More Replies... So why would Switzerland have signs representing ""African Americans"? Black doesn't mean African and African doesn't mean Black. And not a all blacks in America are African American.
It really is very dumb how Americans refer to black people who are not American as "African-American"
Load More Replies... A lot of cultures, including advanced industrialized nations, do assume that people are men and women are something not-quiet-people. While I don't think the diversified signs are necessary, they do in a very small way change the culture to be more inclusive. I can't fault that.
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