The city of Vienna has launched a gender awareness campaign by changing the gender of figures pictured on familiar signs.A green exit sign shows a woman, rather than a man, running for the door, while a traffic light features another crossing the street. Female exit signs and pictograms in bathrooms featuring a man, rather than a woman, changing a baby, will be introduced and seats reserved for the elderly and pregnant women on buses and trams will have a picture a man carrying a child on his lap.
Sonja Wehsely, city councillor in charge of women's affairs, said "Because it clashes with fixed visual habits, the campaign compels (people) to think, look and act differently".
