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Just ‘Men at Work’? Signs ignore another gender at work


Last updated August 11, 2017

By Tina Underwood

Many of us may ignore the “Men Working” signs we see along roadways and construction sites because that’s just the way it has always been. But for Furman politics and international affairs major Katherine West ’19 and her sister Anna Claire, a student at a Northern Kentucky high school, the gender slight was too much to dismiss. Bothered by the “men working” signs in their neighborhood where female construction workers are on site, the West sisters took their complaint to the Edgewood, Kentucky City Council, according to a story in River City News. A note from Katherine West to Furman department chair and professor Liz Smith describes the outcome. West writes, “The City Council was super receptive, and all the signs are now being changed…We’re presenting to a group of nine mayors from adjacent cities … to get the signs changed across the state.”

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