Dortmund poised to introduce 50% gender quota for traffic-light icons, but move is as much about road safety as feminism

With the German government’s plans to introduce quotas for women in company boardrooms seemingly stalled, equality of the sexes could first make advances on the streets: in Dortmund, politicians are debating the introduction of a 50% gender quota for traffic-light icons.

In a joint application to the city council, local politicians from the Social Democratic and Green parties argued that “since we give equal treatment to men and women, it would be consistent to partially modify traffic-light men to traffic-light women”.

To save costs, the quota would be rolled out slowly over time, with icons being replaced only when traffic lights are broken or damaged.

The bid for replacing so-called Ampelmännchen with Ampelfrauen, has as much to do with road safety as feminist principles: since the proposed female version would wear a skirt, it would release more light and be much more visible.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A stop version of the female symbol crossing light Photograph: Karl-josef Hildenbrand/AFP/Getty Images

A similar application was rejected by the Berlin senate in July, partly because some politicians felt that the proposed design, of a girl with pigtails and flowing robes, was too old-fashioned and cliched.

The use of Ampelfrauen is already widespread on the streets of Bremen, Cologne, Dresden, Kassel, Magdeburg and Zwickau. The most common pedestrian icon is a modification of the East German Ampelmännchen, which was designed by East German traffic psychologist Karl Peglau in 1961 and has since attained cult status across the country.