Vienna gives a gender change to its signs

By the end of the year, the Austrian capital will have signs featuring men changing diapers and women riding elevators.

from the March 14, 2007 edition

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"It shouldn't always be the same stupid signs. This generation is different," Mendel says. He suggests that 30 to 40 percent of fathers in this capital city are now "changing nappies at home and in public."

The campaign has stimulated both public and private discourse, says Marlene Parenzan, vice president of the Austrian Women's Ring, a Vienna-based umbrella organization for women's groups.

Gender mainstreaming in politics is easier, Ms. Parenzan says. "What is much more difficult to change is the people themselves. The population as a whole is not very gender-sensitive," she says of the city, where the world's most respected and most well-paid symphony orchestra did not admit women until 1997.

"Men and women need to be shocked somehow," she says. "Their attention needs to be drawn to the fact that we are not [treated] equally."

Vienna's campaign might inspire change on the national level and eventually pique some interest in the European Union, says Bauer, the project director. She has received calls from provincial Austrian and German government officials asking about the campaign.

Even privately owned local businesses have called to inquire where they could pick up the signs, most notably the exit sign depicting a female.

The campaign "can't change the whole society, but it can offer at least the fundaments, and this is what you have to do – especially when you use public money," Bauer says. Gender mainstreaming means "to step back and say: 'Couldn't it be different?'," she adds.

But when it comes to EU or Austrian regulations, sometimes that answer is "no." So the female exit sign – which shows a woman with wind-blown hair racing toward the door, as she is stylishly clad in a modern dress and mid-calf high-heeled boots – will not be used across Europe anytime soon.

Franz Kaida, a member of the Association of Austrian Safety Practitioners, a Vienna-based interest group for active and retired safety experts, says his main concern was that the signs complied with EU legislation.

Mr. Kaida, however, did have one question about the artistic liberties taken with the city's campaign signs: "Do you think that long hair, skirt, and boots represent all women?"

But until the city finds something better, the Viennese – both male and female – will continue to cross the street at the crosswalk, which is marked by a sign featuring a man donning a fedora.

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