Female

Synonyms / Other Terms Used

Woman, Women, Ladies

Category

General Information

Message / Function

For notice in general and to indicate facilities limited to females

	Source	Description
	TA	Frontal view of standing female human figure: body: parabolic conic section, no arms, legs: two lines
	O'64	Standing female human figure: skirt width exaggerated, no arms, legs as single conic shape
	BAA	Frontal view of standing female human figure: skirt width exaggerated, no arms, legs as two conic shapes
	EJP	Standing female human figure: no arms, legs as single rectangle
	Nova Scotia	Frontal view of standing female human figure: no arms, legs as single rectangle
	DTM Berlin	Frontal view of standing female human figure: no arms, legs as single rectangle
	Expo '70	Frontal view of standing female human figure: very short skirt, no arms, legs as single rectangle
	WO'72	Frontal view of standing female human figure: very short skirt, no arms, legs as single rectangle
	Ota	Side view of standing female human figure with flared skirt
	Signbox	Standing female human figure in outline, legs as single line
	Toshiba	Frontal view of standing female human figure with wide flared skirt
	Erco	Frontal view of standing female human figure with very short flared skirt
	Wiener Linien	Frontal view of standing female human figure: arms close to body, legs as single rectangle
	SSRS	Frontal view of standing female human figure: slightly bent arms, wide skirt
	Port	Frontal view of standing female human figure: arms close to body, legs as single conic shape
	Eco-Mo Foundation	Frontal view of standing female human figure, legs as single conic shape
	ISO 7001	Frontal view of standing female human figure, legs as single conic shape
	Dreyfuss	Frontal view of standing female human figure
	IATA	Frontal view of standing female human figure, legs as single conic shape
	Picto'grafics	Frontal view of standing female human figure: arms far from body, legs as single rectangle
	KFAI	Frontal view of standing female human figure
	TAC	Frontal view of standing female human figure with cinched waist
	Tern	Frontal view of standing female human figure with cinched waist
	AIGA	Frontal view of standing female human figure
	Bolivia	Frontal view of standing female human figure
	ÖNORM A 3011	Frontal view of standing female human figure
	D'source	Frontal view of standing female human figure, two dots between head and shoulders
	ICAO	Frontal view of standing female human figure
	OS Berlin	Frontal view of standing female human figure, hips emphasized
	Unknown	Frontal view of standing female human figure, conic dress, hips emphasized
	Modley	Frontal view of standing female human figure, head, arms, and legs in outline
	Skopec	Frontal view of standing female human figure wearing calf-length dress
	Arntz	Frontal view of standing female human figure wearing calf-length dress
	Skopec	Frontal view of standing female human figure wearing sari
	D'source	Frontal view of standing female human figure wearing sari
	UNIT Design	Frontal view of standing female human figure wearing a hijab or chador
	Chile	View of standing female human figure, head as parabolic conic section
	Dreyfuss	Frontal view of standing female human figure with cinched waist, arms as vertical lines
	exdez	Frontal view of standing female human figure in outline
	Handbuch wien.gv.at	Frontal view of standing female human figure in outline, legs as single conic shape
	LVA	Frontal view of standing female human figure in outline, legs as single conic shape
	Sekta	Frontal view of standing female human figure, top in outline
	Smitshuijzen	Dress with short sleeves and cinched waist, ellipsis above indicating head
	Nova Scotia	Side view of standing female human figure, breast shown as filled circle
	Skopec	Frontal view of standing human figure wearing pants
	D'source	Frontal view of upper part of standing female human figure, two dots between head and shoulders
	D'source	Frontal view of upper part of standing female human figure wearing sari
	Erco	Frontal view of upper part of female human figure, breasts indicated by circles
	Unknown	Frontal view of upper part of female human figure, page boy or bob like hair cut
	Epidauros	Frontal view of upper part of female human figure with long hair
	CHBA	Frontal view of female face, hair with flower, parted in the middle, all in outline
	Muthesius	Side view of head with page boy or bob like hair cut and beauty mark
	Unknown	Side view of head with female hair styling in outline
	Expo 98	Circle with two dots (eyes), two connected triangles indicating ribbon
	Unknown	Women's shoe with high heel
	Unknown	Stick figure with 180° circle sector as skirt
	Unknown	Two vertically oriented ovals, each clipped at bottom
	Mt. Davis Youth Hostel	Square and triangle with rounded corners, triangle pointing upwards below
	Unknown	Circle, triangle with rounded corners pointing upwards below
	Unknown	Circle, inverted V below
	Bliss	Triangle pointing upwards ending in vertical line
	Rosenbaum	Letters: X with ° above
	Biology	Circle, plus sign immediately below

Discussion

The collection shown above is only a small selection of the wide variety of graphic symbols used all over the world for messages related to women or to indicate facilities limited to females. Many show local characteristics or signs of their times therefore limiting application. Besides the variants shown above a lot more versions exist for toilet signage, sometimes with a focus on posture related to urinating, many also with an intended humorous component, often also difficult to interpret if not presented in combination with the corresponding symbol for Male, and therefore completely inappropriate for general application.

Most studies and discussions regarding this topic are focusing on toilet symbols (e.g. have a look at a blog post with lots of examples and comments by Marissa: https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2010/09/02/guest-post-go-where-sex-gender-and-toilets/), so there is only limited data available considering a more general use:

Gehringer (1979) used the Production Method to explore which mental images or visual stereotypes exist concerning the message Woman. The results are similar to the selection shown above with one image content dominating: a female human figure was drawn by 66 % of the respondents. The other images were renderings of the head of a woman (10 %) and the symbol from biology (7 %). 4 % of the respondents produced other solutions and 10 % did not offer any image.

Basically many rendering showing a female human figure probably are identified as such quite well: in a Japanese study the pictogram variant labeled as Eco-Mo Foundation for example proved to be highly comprehensible with a comprehension score of 94.2 (Eco-Mo Foundation, 2001). But there are more aspects to regard, some of which we already mentioned in our discussion regarding the referent Toilet. In the end excellent comprehensibility, clear discriminablity from related messages, as well as sufficient legibility also for persons with impaired vision has to be a main concern.

Tests of pictograms of referent Female

Eco-Mo Foundation (2001): Test data of public information symbols in Japan - Procedure for the testing of public information symbols by the Study Committee. ISO: ISO/TC 145/SC 1 N 329.

Gehringer, J. (1979): Untersuchung über die zeichnerische Gestaltung von Pictogrammen in Abhängigkeit von einigen Persönlichkeitsmerkmalen, sowie Überprüfung einiger Bildzeichen auf ihre Erkennbarkeit. Dissertation, Psychology Department, University of Vienna.

Tests of pictograms of referent Toilet: Female

Easterby, R.S. & Graydon, I.R. (1981 a): Evaluation of Public Information Symbols: ISO Test: 1979/80 Series. Part I: Appropriateness Ranking Tests. AP Report 99, Applied Psychology Department, University of Aston in Birmingham, January 1981.

Easterby, R.S. & Graydon, I.R. (1981 b): Evaluation of Public Information Symbols: ISO 1979/80 Test Series. Part II: Comprehension/Recognition Tests. AP Report 100, Applied Psychology Department, University of Aston in Birmingham, January 1981.

Trisnawati, S. & Sriwarno, A. (2018): Visual perception of pictorial signage of public toilets depicted as human figures. Cogent Arts & Humanities. 5. 10.1080/23311983.2018.1553325.