Tesco slammed for '˜sexist' trolley safety instructions

Supermarket giant Tesco has been labelled 'sexist' over its trolley safety instructions.

Shoppers accused the store of 'everyday sexism' over instructions which only show women shopping with their child. Tesco trolleys have been accused of sexism.

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The trolleys show two pictures of a silhouette figure wearing a dress while two younger children are in an 'unsafe' position.

The second graphic shows the correct way for a child to be positioned on the trolley, again with the silhouetted figure wearing a dress.

Everyday sexism

One woman from Manchester raised the complaint on Twitter, claiming it was an example of 'everyday sexism'.

'Tesco, is it only women who do the food shopping and look after the kids?' she wrote.

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Samantha Rennie, executive director at equality group the Rosa UK Fund for Women and Girls, said: 'The idea that shopping trolleys should be gendered in any way seems ridiculous.

'It's a seemingly small factor that plays a role in reinforcing stereotypical ideas of the woman being responsible for the weekly food shop.' And Matt O'Connor, of campaign group Fathers4Justice, said: 'Tesco needs to stop this gender apartheid.'

Overreaction?

However, not everyone was so quick to condemn the store. Several Twitter users rushed to the defence of Tesco. One user wrote: 'Anyone offended by the gendering on a #Tesco trolley needs to have a long hard look at themselves and stop being offended by absolutely everything.'

Another tweeted: 'Seriously, people are complaining about a shopping trolley because it shows an image of a woman pushing a baby in it? Some people need to grow up. There are more important things going on in the world #Tesco #TrolleyGate'

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In response Tesco said they are planning on introducing trolleys featuring gender neutral images with more than 20,000 trolleys already changed.

A Tesco spokesperson said: 'Everyone's welcome at Tesco, which is why we've been changing the icons on our trolleys to use a new, gender-neutral design.

'The new design is already on over 20,000 trolleys and will feature on all new trolleys in the future.'

This article first appeared on our sister site, iNews.

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