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At last, after years of feminist struggle, there’s a female traffic light so we can finally walk across the road

Roisin Lanigan
Roisin Lanigan

Any news on the gender pay gap or right to choose? Nah? OK sweet

If you had to guess, like, Mastermind scenario, if you had to answer ‘what’s the biggest struggle modern women have faced that feminism has yet to address’ what would you say?

No no mate none of that – don’t be silly. It’s obviously the fact that women in Australia can’t cross the road without being advised by traffic lights in general. Previously, for years now, they’ve been restricted to the pavements, gazing wistfully at the men who cross to the other side, hoping that one day that freedom would belong to them. And now, hurrah, it is!

An Australian lobby group called ‘Committee for Melbourne’ has introduced traffic lights which depict women (green lights in dresses) instead of men (green lights in trousers) at stop signs in Melbourne. No that’s not actually a joke, that part.

CEO Martine Letts said: “There was unconscious bias built into our brains because we are accustomed to seeing a male figure. If we see more female figures on traffic lights that might also have a positive impact on changing the way we view the world.”

Look, I’m not saying that it’s not a nice idea. But it’s hardly priority is it. In Australia – in Germaine Greer’s home city, ironically – where anti-feminist groups are massively popular and Julia Gillard was forced to call out Tony Abbott’s misogyny in Parliament, it’s hard to believe that this was thought of as groundbreaking.

Understandably, women on Twitter are having a whale of a time pointing out how ridiculous it is. So there’s that, at least.

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