Austria:Does it matter if the man on the "men at work" construction sign is a woman? Apparently so when it is in Austria, and the woman in question is a ponytailed pictogram in a skirt with a shovel.
That was just one of several ideas proposed by the city of Vienna for a poster campaign to start discussion about "gender mainstreaming".
The campaign also included plans to actually swap the gender in familiar signs around the city, like baby- changing rooms featuring men and a bus sticker asking passengers to give up their seat for a man with a baby.
On the "exit" sign it is a woman in boots who is making a run for it.
In the "slippery surface" sign, another woman is heading for a nasty fall in high heels.
In traditional Austria, however, the signs have put more than a few noses out of joint.
Conservative newspapers rubbished the plan as a waste of money while liberal papers called the image of a woman in skirt and high heels insulting.
"I've never seen a woman in a skirt on a building site," said one reader of the conservative Die Presse. "Where's the sign asking people to give their seat to a pregnant man?"
The plan, unveiled in December, hit the skids when it emerged that allowing cycling women pictograms to take charge of the cycle lane signs would require a change in traffic laws.
But what really put the brakes on this plan was the realisation that some of the signs - in particular the emergency exit signs - breached EU norms.
Not that the EU has anything against women fleeing for their lives in knee-high boots - well done if you can - but there is an EU-wide standard of a fleeing gender-neutral stick figure.
A Vienna town hall spokesperson, Sonja Wehsely, admitted that, as a result, none of the signs would be mounted.
The plot thickened when the town hall claimed subsequently that there never was a plan to change any street signs, just a citywide poster campaign to raise awareness.
Now it appears as if the planned poster campaign will now extend no further than the town hall itself.
"Not carrying out the campaign just because it doesn't conform to EU norms cannot happen," said Monika Vana of Vienna's Green Party.
"It would be a shame if what in principle is a good thing was discredited."
