--- description: New Zealand Transport Agency will change signs that say "linemen" to "line crew" after a seven-year-old girl wrote a letter to the agency title: New Zealand to Change 'Linemen' Signs After Letter From Girl image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [New Zealand](/tag/new-zealand/) ## New Zealand Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # A 7-Year-Old Girl Has Inspired New Zealand to Make Gender-Neutral Road Signs by [Casey Quackenbush](/author/casey-quackenbush/) ## Casey Quackenbush Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 31, 2018 4:58 AM CUT by [Casey Quackenbush](/author/casey-quackenbush/) ## Casey Quackenbush Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 31, 2018 4:58 AM CUT New Zealand [will change](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/31/pulled-into-line-girl-7-gets-new-zealand-to-change-sexist-road-signs "undefined") signs that say “Linemen” to “Line Crew” after a seven-year-old girl wrote a letter to authorities pointing out that “women can be line-workers too,” the _Guardian_ reports. Zoe Carew wrote the letter after seeing linemen signs — used to indicate that workers are fixing electric power lines in the area — on her way to visit her grandparents. “Why does the sign say ‘Linemen’ when the people working on the lines may be men or women?” Carew wrote in a letter to Fergus Gammie, the chief executive of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA). “I think this sign is wrong and unfair. Do you agree?” “I don’t really want to be a line-worker when I grow up because there are so many more exciting things I would like to do, but some girls might want to learn to linewomen. Can you please change the sign to say ‘Line-workers’ instead, or something else correct and fair like that,” she asked. Gammie replied to the letter, shared by Zoe’s mom on Twitter, praising her suggestion. > [](https://twitter.com/greeniecaitlin/status/1023762655373287424) The chief executive said adjusting the text to “line workers” would require changing the overall size of the sign, so they would go with “line crew.” > [](https://twitter.com/nzta%5Fnews/status/1024056804324470784) Gammie thanked her again for the suggestion, and said the update would take some time to materialize. “The new signs will replace the old ones when they need replacement due to wear and tear, this may take some time,” he said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5353574/new-zealand-gender-neutral-signs/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5353574/new-zealand-gender-neutral-signs/"},"headline":"A 7-Year-Old Girl Has Inspired New Zealand to Make Gender-Neutral Road Signs","datePublished":"2018-07-31T04:58:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T21:00:28.435Z","description":"A 7-year-old girl pointed out \"women can be line-workers too\"","url":"https://time.com/5353574/new-zealand-gender-neutral-signs/","keywords":["New Zealand","onetime","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Casey Quackenbush","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/casey-quackenbush/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/new-zealand/","name":"New Zealand"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5353574/new-zealand-gender-neutral-signs/","name":"A 7-Year-Old Girl Has Inspired New Zealand to Make Gender-Neutral Road Signs"}}]}] ```