Super long restroom line for the women's and not the men's?

Most of the time people use restrooms to pee. Men have standing urinals that probably get used more than toilet stalls. Women also more often go to the rest rooms with their children. So lets say at least a third of the women have a child. So for 100 women you add 30 children. They take longer. You have to make sure you kid is secure in their stall so often it means you wait for them to finish or if they are little, you help them out. So now each time is longer. Then you have to help them clean up once they are out because they can’t reach things. Then of course you had to use the bathroom as well and have to clean up.
Then there is the added adventure of looking for a toilet that isn’t nasty or stuffed with toilet paper and you have to make sure there is toilet paper. We have to sit to pee. Find a place to hang our purses or bags with making sure it doesn’t touch the nasty floor.
Then you throw in women on their cycle and may need to change their pads.
And once you are done, you wash up once there is a free sink and try to find one that is working and has a working soap dispenser. And you fix your hair and freshen up a little so you don’t look like you used the toilet at all as you walk out. Also throw in that sometimes you are lucky if there are more than 4 stalls in the whole place for hundreds of people coming through. Movie theaters usually have the most stalls and big picnic areas and public beaches and pools.

Then you are out of there. Of course all of this after waiting for each woman to go through this before you can use a toilet to just pee.

In my youth, I went to a bar in Houston to see a band play. I went to use the restroom and saw the exact opposite…the men’s room line was a mile long and women were walking in and out of the ladies’ room. Having to pee really badly, I went to the ladies’ room stuck my head in and asked if it would be okay if I just came in to relieve myself. None of the women cared so I went in, did what I had to do and left. Apparently, since I didn’t create a massive scene and didn’t exit after being beaten as a perv, more guys decided to try it. Next time I went there were lines at both bathrooms…both unisex.

Women have to take their pants down, which takes some more time. Men don’t. Men can be in and out in a minute. Women may take thtree minutes. Men can also line up at the urinals, maybe six in a row, so that eases up congestion there, too. Hence the line for the ladies’ room.

I don’t think there’s a man living who hasn’t experienced standing at a urinal to have a woman come crashing into the men’s room and dashing into one of the stalls. I have even experienced groups of frustrated women apparently accustomed to ignoring the long lines to the ladies room for the lineless men’s room with the empty stalls. And this is clearly an example of our male oriented society. Sports venues are particularly guilty of the oversight in furnishing ample facilities to accommodate the ladies. But I’ve had women in formal wear barge into the men’s room at the opera. It’s fascinating that men overall are pretty clueless about what goes on with women in the bathroom. I grew up with 2 sisters and I of course understood the anatomical differences, but the only impression that stuck in the heads of me my brother and dad was that if one of the girls or my mom entered the bathroom, it was not likely to be a brief visit. And equally as frustrating as their dalliance was the fact that their plumbing apparently forced them into the room more frequently than us.

Some women (have told me) go in also to powder their noses, or fix other make-up stuff.
Different clothing.
More care to not have your pants or skirt mopping the floor (yuk).
Gossiping (nice stereotype).

At our local convention center (downtown Atlanta) there are bathrooms that literally swing both ways.

There’s the traditional Mens and the traditional Women’s bathrooms, but between them there is an additional fully equipped set of stalls (and urinals, maybe).

If the convention is assumed to be attended my a preponderance of women, then they open the middle doors to attach to the Womens side as a bathroom extension. If it’s primarily men’s show (NADA, for example), the lock the women’s door and open it to the Mens side. This way they better deal with population imbalances.

When I go to the theater in NYC, the ladies’ room will often have an attendant who is like a traffic cop. When there’s an intermission and 100 ladies are lined up for the bathroom, time is of the essence. The traffic cop/bathroom attendant will pay attention to what stalls become vacant and she will yell out the stall number so ladies can hustle. Otherwise, ladies may be slow, bending downt to look under the door to see if there are a set of feet in there, or a stall may sit empty because nobody knew it was vacant.

Also in NYC, I went to a restaurant once at the MOMA and it had a mutual mens/ladies room. The doors went from floor to ceiling, and everyone could go in and the sinks were the common areas. That type of bathroom made a lot of sense.

I’ve used mens’ rooms in fast food places or restaurants, and I don’t care. I will give the courtesy of not entering the bathroom if someone is in there, but otherwise, I see nothing wrong with it.

At the local mall, there are what they call “family restrooms” which is a small room with a big toilet, little toilet for the kid and a sink. I will use those, also. They will often be empty while the ladies’ room will have a line.

I have definitely seen lines in both men’s and women’s bathrooms, but even then I found the men’s line moved more quickly. I have also seen a long line from a woman’s bathroom and no one in the men’s room (and when I went in, there was a woman in there, just finishing washing her hands, who looked at me awkwardly and quickly left). As a dude, I haven’t been in a woman’s bathroom since I was a kid and accidentally walked into the girls’ bathroom at school. xD

Men don’t have to line the toilet seat with toilet paper before sitting on a filthy toilet. That takes time.

In Europe most toilets are unisex. I’ve had to walk past men peeing at urinals to get to the toilets. Unisex does make sense but I could live without the urinals.

One of the discomforts of going to the theater in NYC is the tension about making it through the ladies’ room and back to your seat before the second act starts. I try to get a seat on the aisle for that reason and dash when the first act is ending.

Studies have shown that women take twice as long as men, for the reasons stated above. That means for the same number of stalls, women’s restrooms have half the throughput as men’s restrooms. For equitable throughput, either women’s restrooms need twice as many stalls, or restrooms need to be unisex.

You are experiencing the wonders of the world. I believe you can imagine why it takes women longer than men to finish going to the bathroom and washing hands. Also women go more often it seems.

@RocketGuy Ya think studies are needed? It’s not rocket science. (sorry in advance)

Studies are always needed. But you would think the lines themselves hint enough. The studies might indicate how many extra stalls are required to accommodate the ladies. The studies might also conclude whether unisex bathrooms are the solution or merely insure that men share the pain of waiting in line. There is one little item of which I am now acutely aware and that is the urgency of a restroom for the elderly. Boomers and particularly we men regard restrooms with a reverence impossible to contemplate in our younger days. There are going to be a LOT of extra old folks crowding those restroom lines.

These are all good responses, some stuff I didn’t think about. Yes women would take longer than us men to pee even. They do have urinals at the fair restrooms for us, but they are the metal trough style. Still didn’t bother me to use it, was in and out.

Men really have a plumbing advantage, but time usually shifts that balance dependably with the rigors of prostate issues.

@WhyNow – the studies gave quantitative results. I heard that some sports stadiums actually put in 2x more stalls in women’s restrooms because of that.

@HP “I don’t think there’s a man living who hasn’t experienced standing at a urinal to have a woman come crashing into the men’s room and dashing into one of the stalls.”

I was in a restroom in a bar one time and a woman burst in and used the urinal because the stall was busy. Pretty hilarious. She straddled the thing with her back to the toilet and did a squat-like maneuver. It was pretty funny, everyone was laughing.

Don’t forget all the extra time, equipment, and cleanup that is necessary when women are having their cycle.

I prefer to forget. It’s terrifying!