German town debating quota for equal male and female crosswalk signals

DORTMUND, Germany, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- Politicians in the town of Dortmund, Germany are considering installing an equal number of male and female crosswalk signals in the name of equality.

The Green party and the Social Democrats in the country argue the culture has embraced equality between men and women in other parts of society, but there are not equal male and female representations in crosswalk signals.

"Since we give equal treatment to men and women, it would be consistent to partially modify traffic-light men to traffic-light women," they wrote in their proposal, according to The Guardian.

The current design that is based on a man is called the Ampelmännchen, or the Ampelmann. It was designed in communist East Germany when the country was still split in two and migrated to the rest of the country after reunification and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

"We only want to replace broken traffic lights with new female icons to support gender equality, but do not intend to invest money in a city wide replacement," Martina Mueller, from the Greens Party in Dortmund, told NBC News.