Potty Parity
Heard a new term today: POTTY PARITY
Potty parity is equal or equitable provision of public toilet facilities for females and males within a public space. Parity may be defined in various ways in relation to facilities in a building. The simplest is as equal floor space for male and female washrooms. Since men's and boys' bathrooms include urinals, which take up less space than stalls, this still results in more facilities for males. An alternative parity is by number of fixtures within washrooms. However, since females on average spend more time in washrooms more males are able to use more facilities per unit time. More recent parity regulations therefore require more fixtures for females to ensure that the average time spent waiting to use the toilet is the same for females as for males, or to equalize through-puts of male and female toilets.
More about PP (!!) from Kathryn Anthony at the University of Illinois:
Nature is nature, folks. Simply put: most men can whip it out and get their wizzin' done in about 20-30 seconds (NOTE: men with shy bladders take significantly longer).
I have full understanding that the process is more complicated and thus significantly longer for women.
I see 4 solutions to reach "parity":
- convert men's restrooms to women's
- make women's restrooms larger than men's
- install uritrottoirs* for the men (in possible combination with either of the first 2 options)
- eliminate the urinal so that both men and women must utilize stalls
Obviously, the fourth one is not going to happen. And I doubt that uritrottoirs are an option either.
Grace & Peace & Love to you all -
Matt
