While waiting for the lights to change green on a crosswalk, have you ever noticed that there
is only one figure of a man on the traffc lights?
Have you ever had the thought that this connotes a sexual discrimination because there is no fgure of a woman but only a man?
Seoul has recently come up with the suggestion to replace all the traffic lights in Seoul with ones that have the figures of both a woman and a man because traffic lights with only a man figure seems to exclude women. In order to replace all the screens of traffic lights in Seoul, approximately 20 billion won is required and many citizens of Seoul criticize this new proposal, believing that it is a total waste of money to expend all their tax payments on this somewhat ridiculous suggestion. So far, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency,which is in charge of this new suggestion by the city, has suspended the judgment on this matter.
Sexual discrimination has continuously become an issue in our society as the power and social influence of women has increased in the modern world. The proposal of the city to replace the screens of all the traffic lights seems reasonable in that it aims to demonstrate equality of the two genders.
However, it is doubtful that replacing the traffic lights will solve the deeply-rooted sexual discrimination issue. Moreover, putting in a figure of a woman with long hair and a skirt might seem even more sexually discriminating because it implicates the social prejudice that women have long hair and wear skirts.
A reform in the consciousness of people regarding gender problems is what we need to solve the problem of sexual discrimination in the society, not a replacement of traffic lights.The mayor’s motto of making Seoul a better city for women is understandable, but this kind of proposal is not the one that benefits our situation.
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