Ever wonder why women's restroom lines are longer than the men's? In 2017, their was a study done in Belgium at Ghent University about it.
1. Men's Rooms Accommodate More Occupants
Stalls take up more space than urinals do, so a men’s bathroom can, on average, actually accommodate 20 to 30 percent more users than the same-sized women’s bathroom.
2. More Time Spent
Women spend more time in the restroom, generally due to practical reasons, with women taking 1.5 to two times as long in the bathroom as men do.
While men spend a minute heading in and using the urinal, women usually need to open and close stall doors, remove more clothing, and clean toilet seats—and that precious time adds up.
When you factor in the extra time it takes women to use the restroom AND the fact that there are fewer toilets available, you see a big difference in the wait times for men and women.
3. Less Space + More Time Spent = Longer Lines
The third reason, researchers found, was how busy restrooms were.
Since women had less space and took longer in the bathroom, busy periods—such as during lunch breaks or at the end of a work day—amplified wait times for women.
In other words, it’s already worse for women than men. But when the system is stressed—say at the end of a sporting event—the wait times for women get out of control.
Solution? They found that doubling the number of toilets available to women evened the wait times between genders, but that would require installing double the amount of toilets for women.
A wait time that’s more than halved? Now that’s something we can all get on board with.
The scientists believe this solution can cut the average wait time from about 6 minutes to less than 90 seconds!
Of course, there’s been lots of debate about unisex bathrooms recently.
This makes total sense actually! What do you think?