A Victorian lobby group has won in its push to have several traffic lights around Melbourne changed into 'female'Â figures as part of a push for gender equality and to reduce "unconscious bias."
As part of an initiative by The Committee for Melbourne, 10 traffic lights around Melbourne's CBD will now have lights depicting females for a 12-month trial. According to the ABC, the cost of changing more than six traffic lights comes in at $8400 (the Committee for Melbourne and Camlex Electrical are footing the bill). The group eventually want all traffic lights to have an even split between male and female traffic lights.Â
International Women's Day marches kick off
Women have started marking International Women's Day with marches in cities across the world, to highlight issues from equal pay to access to abortion.
The move has sparked debate on social media, with people questioning whether the move was overly PC, if the money could have been spent on more worthy initiatives, whether we knew that traffic lights were male in the first place and why the female figure had to be wearing a dress. Could she not be a female traffic light in trousers?
And on the questions went. Below is a breakdown of the key themes.