This does not appear to be a joke. Time Magazine is reporting the following from Seoul, Korea:

In May, the city government started to paint 4,929 public and private parking places pink throughout the city, with thousands more slated to go under the brush next year. The pink parking spots, reserved for women drivers so they don’t have to walk so far to work or the mall, are part of the South Korean capital’s Women Friendly Seoul Project, an effort for the notoriously macho Asian city of more than 10 million to transform itself into a safer, more heel-friendly “space for women.”

While I would love the benefits of a closer parking space and one that is apparently wider than average (after all, who wants their car to be dinged?), I agree that the effort is misguided.  It’s akin to saying that women aren’t good driver and I would prefer to see real programs that promote gender equality rather than cute pink parking.

Photos via Context.org