Se*xist 'Men at Work' signs must be repainted
Where's Gypsy???
All “Men at Work” road signs in a US city are to be repainted, after complaints they that discriminate against female construction staff.
Authorities in Atlanta, Georgia agreed to alter the signs following a campaign by the editor of a local women’s magazine, who claimed they were sexist.
More than 50 "Men At Work" or "Men Working” warnings will be repainted to say “Workers Ahead” or just “Workers” at a cost of £11 ($22) per sign.
The city will also ensure that all future signs it buys are gender neutral. The total cost of the alterations will exceed $1,000.
"It seemed like the right thing to do," said Joe Basista, the Atlanta Public Works commissioner.
More than half the department’s employees are women, and some had complained about the signs in the past, according to union officials.
Cynthia Good, editor of PINK magazine, which is aimed at professional women, said she now hoped to convince other cities to remove bias from their road signs.
“We're calling on the rest of the nation to follow suit and make a statement that we will not accept these subtle forms of discrimination," she said.
The equivalent signs in Britain - which feature images of an apparently male worker holding a spade, but no text - might be more difficult to make gender neutral.
Mrs Good started her campaign after police investigated an allegation that she spray-painted the letters “wo” at the beginning of one of the offending signs.
There are comparable number of women as are men working in the construction sector especially in the Asian countries although the sign still reads Men at work.
Neutral power. As long as the work gets done who cares a damn. Life's a happy place o live. Its bcoz some people don't work others have to share that burden..
PC's also taking over the signboards? Pathetic.
Give me one woman who can work on an excavation and we'll help you repaint EVERYTHING of those signboards...
"Everything in this book may be wrong." Illusions: The Adventures of The Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach
then from now on britexpat, always wondered about the 'lady' part anyway ;)
Yeah I noticed it too.. Before they used to give awards in functions for diff categories like best actor or best actor etc or best villian or best vamp but now it is best actor in a male lead or female lead or best male in a villanous role or best female.. Times have changed. Now we don't even use manageress.. It is actually right. We have never used doctress have we? One should not bring in the sex when it comes to profession
The real error isn't the gender, it's the verb.
How often do you actually see anyone, man or woman, actually 'working' near those signs?
Brandyperson....
Girl power!!!!!!!!! love it :)
I think the problem may lie in the English language. I am not fluent in any other but I know there are masculine, feminine and neutral cases. I think we do not really have too much in the way of neutral in English (of course, I am no English major either). I think Hollywood is going for neutral with the whole 'actor' bit.
Have you noticed how "Actress" is not used anymore in the USA.... Everyone is a ACTOR
Signs of the times ;)