Germany's Famed Crosswalk Man Comes Under Fire for Being ... a Man

Do we need gender equity for traffic light icons? This is an actual debate going on in Germany right now. The northwestern city of Dortmund is currently proposing to introduce a 50/50 gender balance in its pedestrian traffic signals. This means that for every green man that flashes on to tell walkers it’s time to cross, there will one day be a corresponding green woman doing the same elsewhere in the city. In the daily run of city business, this issue might seem like small fry, but it has unleashed a wave of commentary that the newspaper Die Welt has indelicately described (in English) as a “s**tstorm”.

At the center of the storm is a pictogram Germans call the Ampelfrau—simply translated as “traffic light woman." A squat, girlish figure with pigtails and a broad skirt, the Ampelfrau was first introduced in the Eastern German city of Zwickau in 2004. She’s distinctively different from the usual anonymous figures found in most countries. She has since spread across much of Eastern Germany, on whose already popular male crosswalk signal she is modeled (more on that later). Her migration has also reached a few crossings over in the West, but Dortmund’s plan is the first time the Ampelfrau will be rolled out across a district as an equal partner with her male counterpart. But for Dortmund’s governing Social Democrats and Greens, this isn’t just about giving women equal billing: Thanks to her flared skirts, the female crosswalk stencil is broader than the current skinnier male version, and thus emits a clearer, brighter light.