Following up on an earlier blog post, Sweden's National Road Administration has come up with a new design for a more gender conscious crosswalk sign: Fru Gårman (pictured to the left, image courtesy of Vägverket). Pending government approval, the new female figure signs are set to go up next year alongside the traditional walking man (Herr Gårman, which means "Mr. Walkman" or "This is where you walk" in English) signs at pedestrian crosswalks across Sweden. Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Update: Gender Equality and Road Signs
Following up on an earlier blog post, Sweden's National Road Administration has come up with a new design for a more gender conscious crosswalk sign: Fru Gårman (pictured to the left, image courtesy of Vägverket). Pending government approval, the new female figure signs are set to go up next year alongside the traditional walking man (Herr Gårman, which means "Mr. Walkman" or "This is where you walk" in English) signs at pedestrian crosswalks across Sweden. 
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Yeah.. well, many of us swedes think it's quite a useless sign actually. Okey, we get the point of being equal between the sexes but come on.. can't women wear jeans these days? I don't really think it's necessary to have a sign with a dress to show it's a woman. And the reason it's a man, and not a woman in jeans, is because (as you wrote) Herr Gårman (Mr Walkingman) sounds like "här går man" which means "here you walk". Fru Gårman (Mrs Walkingman) is just not as pedagogical. It's really easy to teach small children which sign that does allow them to cross the street by that wordgame... but hey, if they think it's that important let them keep going, as long as they doesn't hurt anyone...
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