Women’s parking spaces upset half the population
Seoul – Specially widened parking spaces that Seoul authorities say are designed to make women drivers feel ‘‘more comfortable’’, have instead, perhaps unsurprisingly, invoked the fury of half the population.
The self-declared ‘‘womanfriendly’’ car-parking spaces – which are delineated in unmissable pink paint and bear the silhouette of a woman in a miniskirt – have colonised the South Korean capital as Park Geun Hye strides into her second year as the country’s first female president.
Many fondly imagined that Park’s leadership would start to chip away at South Korea’s traditional attitudes toward women, especially in the workplace.
Their hopes appear to have been dampened by this scheme. The idea to install widened parking spaces for women is part of a seemingly well-intentioned, NZ$117 million project to make Seoul easier for its female residents.
Pavements have been resurfaced to make it easier to walk in heels, and the number of public lavatories for women has been increased by 7000.
The thinking behind the carpark widening scheme, say its architects, is to make women feel safer: the spots themselves are in more brightly lit places and closer to the entrances to buildings.
The scheme has already been introduced in various other South Korean cities in 2009, but has only now reached Seoul.