Sexist 'Men at Work' signs must be repainted

by amyjudd | July 22, 2008 at 01:38 pm | 410 views | 12 comments

All signs displaying the message 'Men Working' or Men at Work' in Atlanta Georgia are going to have to be repainted after a campaign by the editor of a local women's magazine claimed they were sexist.

More than 50 signs have to be changed to 'Workers ahead' or just 'Workers' (which is too vague I think).

Each one will cost about $22 to 'fix'.

From now on all signs will be gender neutral.

"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.

What do you think about this decision? Personally I don't think female construction workers are offended by these signs? What does it matter to the magazine editor? She doesn't even work in construction!

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julianw

at 13:45 on July 22nd, 2008

In South Africa they avoid sexism by using the word "waitron" instead of waitress or waiter. Gender-neutral, yes, but it makes people sound like robots.

Nicole Billard

at 13:51 on July 22nd, 2008

Waitron... ha! I'm with Amy... I'm pretty sure we're all getting over it. Mankind = Men at Work. Do we not have better things to spend money on, America? Really.

Paschen

at 13:53 on July 22nd, 2008

good stuff:

amyjudd, I like this story. It's good stuff.

I think we do take things a little to far some time and end up with the opposite of what we where actually seeking!

mbaumgartner

at 14:15 on July 22nd, 2008

I like the fact that they're going to "fix" the signs to make them "gender neutral"... don't we do that to cats? fair enough. The signs are out of date, and perhaps it's a priority to change them. But, if in fact more than half of the employees are female then there is no visible evidence of discrimination in the hiring policy (assuming equal pay for equal work). I've always thought "equality" was different than "sameness" anyway - somehow that seems to confuse people.

silvisrivers

at 02:24 on July 23rd, 2008

New Sign :

Women Or Men Merged In Equality At Work

(Perhaps even transgender people too)

(Cats May be accompanying)

Brought to you by the : Hypersensitive Protest Over Anything Association

jorgeml

at 08:52 on July 23rd, 2008

jorgeml has contributed a photo to this story.

The photo was taken in Japan.

mchawk

at 09:58 on July 23rd, 2008

good stuff:

amyjudd, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Who exactly are these signs offending (other than Mrs. Good)?

I used to work in television - historically, a deeply sexist industry - and there were times when women would do jobs that were traditionally filled by men, such as Grip/Electrics. All of those women were proud to be "just one of the guys" as, to them, it meant they were getting equal treatment and respect from the team. I once even saw a Camera-woman arguing with a producer so that her on-screen credit would read "Cameraman." All of those women would have had no trouble working behind a "men at work" sign.

Mrs. Good is just tilting at windmills with this one. She should pick her battles more carefully and stop costing the city $22 a sign.

dfmead

at 10:32 on July 23rd, 2008

A sign from a bygone era - when women were not allowed to work on maintaining steam trains - this sign and several others like it adorn the Niles Canyon Railway maintenance yard. (More pictures at http://flickr.com/photos/damead/sets/72157600122278360/) The railway offers rides on early 20th century locomotive-powered passenger trains on a short route. http://www.ncry.org/ Since women participate in this organization, perhaps they'll have to repaint their signs as well. But they are a sign of an historic time in American transportation.

dfmead has contributed a photo to this story.

Snozzwanger (not verified)

at 15:13 on July 24th, 2008

It is worth noting that Ms. Good was previously a reporter and anchor for WAGA TV in Atlanta (1986-97), the CBS affiliate turned Fox in the 1994 Fox affiliate shuffle. Also of note Ms, Good is married to Joey Reiman, internationally known advertising executive and founder of BrightHouse, which he is fond of referring to as an "ideation corporation" rather than as an advertising agency despite providing exactly and only the same services.

Put these two career paths together, add a recently launched magazine with subscriber numbers reportedly so low they can't be audited and a publisher who vandalized street signs and still couldn't get any media coverage, shake vigorously and get... this.

MargLarGo (not verified)

at 15:16 on July 24th, 2008

This article is sorta misleading- the only signs affected are the few owned by the city of Atlanta. Those owned by the county, state, private contractors and even those the city rents for large projects are not in any way affected.

This does seem pretty "p.r.-ish".

ming.photographer

at 06:50 on July 28th, 2008

I think workplaces should have signs like these around. I mean, have you ever worked with a man?

Dangerous!

ming.photographer has contributed a photo to this story.

daveterry (not verified)

at 03:07 on July 31st, 2008

Keep the signs but phase them out. Change them to "People at Work" since that covers everyone, except of course animals. What happens if the workers use a horse or a donkey or a bull or a water buffalo? Maybe "Workers at Work?"

It's silly to insist on a big expense in these already economically challenged times.

Yes, they are wrong, but change them over time.

...dave