Sexist New Zealand road signs to be changed after girl’s letter

A YOUNG girl has convinced New Zealand’s transport authority to change one of its road signs after pointing out it wasn’t inclusive to women.

Plea to change road signs. Picture: Caitlin Carew/Twitter

CONCERNS voiced by a seven-year-old New Zealand girl regarding “unfair” road signs that exclude women have been heard by the country’s transport authority.

Zoe Carew wrote to the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) after she noticed a sign that read “Linemen”, which warns motorists about crews working on electricity poles and telecommunication cables.

Her letter and the response she received from the NZTA were posted to Twitter by Zoe’s mum, Caitlin Carew, who praised her daughter’s initiative.

Zoe noticed the sign while driving to her grandparent’s house. Picture: Caitlin Carew/Twitter

In the letter, Zoe suggested they change the signs to a more gender neutral term like “Line-workers” after pointing out that women can work in the industry too.

“I don’t really want to be a line-worker when I grow up because there are so many more exciting things I would like to do, but some girls might want to learn to be a lineswoman,” she wrote.

“Why does it say ‘LINEMEN’ when the people working on the lines may be men or women?”

She labelled the sign “wrong and unfair” to women and the NZTA appeared to agree with her.

The company’s chief executive Fergus Gammie wrote back to Zoe informing her that the signs would be updated.

The NZTA were impressed with Zoe’s suggestion. Picture: Caitlin Carew/Twitter

Mr Gammie commended Zoe for taking action to fix something she perceived as unjust and said her suggestion would be implemented with a couple of slight changes.

“The Transport Agency likes your idea, but your suggestion of ‘LINE-WORKERS’ would require the size of the signs to be increased,” he wrote.

“However, it would be possible to change the signs to read “LINE CREW” without changing the overall size of the signs.”

He added that it may take some time for all the signs to be changed to the new wording as they will only be swapped out when the old ones need replacing.