Sticker campaign addresses ‘unconscious gender bias’ at road crossings for International Women's Day
An Australian lobby group is tackling gender perceptions at pedestrian crossings using stickers to make the public re-evaluate the ‘green man’.
Female crossing stickers
In Melbourne city centre, a trial scheme saw ten lights fitted with new crossing stickers featuring women as part of a 12 month trial, a timely scheme launched days before International Women’s Day (8 March).
Martine Letts, the Committee of Melbourne’s chief executive, told ABC that the idea was to “install traffic lights with female representation, as well as male representation, to help reduce unconscious bias".
She added: “The aim is to move towards one-to-one male and female representation across the state of Victoria.”
The changes come at a cost however, as ABC reports that it costs $8,400AUS to make the updates to six traffic lights.
There's even a little lady on the new instructions for pedestrians @7NewsMelbourne pic.twitter.com/2GWU7flUCA
— Jodi Lee (@jodilee_7) March 6, 2017
Street signs and crossings are popular points of outreach for diversity. During Pride Festival in London last year, Sadiq Kahn approved exclusive same-sex crossing signs.