Women’s loo queues- what’s going on??

[SanctusInDistress]

I’m in my 50s, so I have plenty of experience using the women’s public lavatories. In the past 5 years, I’ve noticed that the queues are out of this world. And not just in tbe UK. Everywhere I go, the women’s queues are always super long and move very slowly.

is it that people now use their phone whilst in there? A pee and a quick browse?

ladies, what’s going on?! Are our bladders and rectums getting bigger so it takes more time to discharge, or are we using public loos to catch up on our social media when out and about?

is it just me who has noticed this? I don’t go any more often than when I was in my 30s.

Am I being unreasonable for thinking that women’s lav queues are getting ridiculous?

Women are cleaner? 😂😂 whilst standing in a queue to use the ladies, you can see almost every single woman come out only to give their fingertips a perfunctory sprinkle baptism under the tap and then waltz off. I used to think women were cleaner, until I noticed them all at this.

The traditional women’s loos were a set of cubicles, each containing just a toilet, and some washbasins in a communal area. Quick and easy to use.

Many places have changed to include toilet and washbasin in each cubicle, with no communal hand washing facilities. This means everyone occupies a cubicle for much longer than they used to. Hence the longer queues.

Also, I could be bursting but can't pee if I feel the pressure is on with an audience waiting, at least with the ability to hear what I'm doing in said loo, especially if it's very quiet. It can take ages!

This is usually done to create unisex toilets instead of single-sex facilities. A backward step, which has increased the risk of sexual harassment. This has made many women and girls reluctant to use toilets when they are away from home, including in schools.

Women toilet all over the world the same

And please don’t use the disabled loo unless you genuinely need to. Many people have bladder disorders or other hidden disabilities.

Not noticed any different. In fact less queues. I visit national trust. Yet to go to the cinema and rarely go to shopping centres. Can't remember the last time I queued for the toilet.

Hate it when councils close a block of toilets to save £15k-20k a year when they waste that money and more on red tape etc per week.

The two blocks of public toilets in the town where I live are closed as lowlifes vandalise them. What needs to go into people's minds to do something as low and pathetic to that? Love to see their loos at their homes.

I cannot use squat toilets, even if I am desperate. Stopped off at a newly open service station in France 10-12 years ago and the toilets were squat toilets. Went to the disabled loo and was happy it was a 'proper' loo.

I always assumed it's because in men's loos they have cubicles and urinals meaning twice the number of options compared to women and no faffing with pulling trousers up and down etc. Nor dealing with periods etc.

In the shopping centre in the city centre, I use hand sanitiser instead of washing hands as seen on several occasions mums letting their 3-4 year old boys peeing in the hand basins. That is awful. They are old enough to pee in a toilet.

Earlier this year I was on a touring holiday abroad with everyone on the tour just women. We used the men's loos too in some places as there were no other men around and that halved the time taken for all of us to use the loo.

On these trips, I always take advantage of loo stops, museums with loos as no idea when the next opportunity to visit the loo.

I can’t find the stats on this now on my phone, but there are vastly more male architects than female ones and “potty parity” is one of the reasons the industry is trying to recruit more women. Men simply don’t consider that women need more time in the bathroom, or think that an even 50/50 split is the most sensible.

As said, women have periods and handbags and tights and (often more so than men) children to wrangle. Women also take the time to wash their hands.

Men on the other hand (not all, but most) have a quick wee and are still zipping up as they are walking out of the bathroom.

Handwashing is irrelevant, in most loos the basins are outside the cubicle. The queues are to actually get in there in the first place.

I can’t find the stats on this now on my phone, but there are vastly more male architects than female ones and “potty parity” is one of the reasons the industry is trying to recruit more women. Men simply don’t consider that women need more time in the bathroom, or think that an even 50/50 split is the most sensible.

I really interested in this. While I understand that there are more male than female architects, I cannot fathom why they fail to consider that women needs more loos. Are they stupid? Is it really down to whether the architect is male or female? Don't they teach this stuff in architect school?
If you ask the average man on the street, I'm pretty sure the vast majority will know that women queue for longer than men.

They know, they just don't care.

Its phones - we have noticed it at work - the toilet time has increased steadily for the last 5 years.

We were at a birthday party recently and two of my female relatives (aged 13) were constantly going to the toilets together to film TikToks, as they said "the light is much better". Yes, but you're also filming in a toilet!

Goodness knows why they have to film everything (to be fair, it would have been them clowning around and preening; nothing unsavoury or inappropriate).

They must have gone there on average at least three times an hour.

I suppose, even absent TikTok filming, there are still some women and girls who treat going to toilets as a social activity - which is inevitably going to take longer. I can't recall ever having observed a man or boy saying that he's going to the toilet and asking if anybody else wants to come along and join him.

This might be 'famous last words' but I'm 50 and use public toilets more now than when I was younger (always have a 'safety wee' when I don't know when the next opportunity will be) but I haven't noticed any worsening of the queue situation - it's never been very good for women, so that's not an endorsement by any means, but I would say it's as bad as it's ever been rather than it's got worse.

It's not all sunshine for men either. DH has a bowel issue and sometimes needs a cubicle in the gents, and has had to queue longer than me on occasions because there's usually only one or two cubicles in the gents (and some embarrassment waiting for it as 'in and out' is the norm in the gents).

Is it mobility rather than frequency?

MIL has joint pain now and I have noticed she is slower at doing many tasks and does now take a bit longer in toilets getting sorted.

To be fair, I don't think the thought process usually comes from a point of planned selfishness.

Yes, the net result is that men end up with twice as many toilets (although, technically, I suppose that's not strictly true, as half of them are of restricted use by design, so men needing a poo, as well as shy men/those needing/preferring a cubicle for various privacy reasons have less provision than the women for their circumstances); but I reckon the thinking goes that there is some additional wall space where they could site a couple of urinals as well as the cubicles, do why ever wouldn't you?

It's not a conscious decision to disadvantage women, as they would doubtless happily stick a couple of extra urinals in the women's toilets too - but of course, that would be completely pointless - and wouldn't actually help women in any way; i.e. no women would actually want to try to use most of the numerically additional toilets that the men have available.

You could maybe kind of compare it to provision of sanitary bins: whereby they could equally ensure that men's cubicles are all large enough to accommodate, and dutifully supplied with, a bin - but again, it would be completely pointless and never used, except for the odd stray crisp packet that could easily go in any bin.

I think the issue is in starting off with equal spaces for both sets of toilets in the first place. As PP said, if they allocated 70% of the available toilet space to women's toilets, with considerably more cubicles, they could then put the necessary cubicles in the men's and then fill up all the remaining space with lots of urinals - so everybody is happy and fairly served.

It's a similar principle to strictly allotting equal sized bedrooms to two children for perceived fairness, even though the toddler has lots of huge bulky plastic toys and wants to run around madly all the time, whereas the teenage boy only needs/wants to sit on the bed or at his desk with his phone or laptop and rarely changes one pair of jeans and t-shirt for another identical set in any case.

I think there's definitely a great need to appreciate that it's not a binary: with everybody either disabled and needing additional facilities; or otherwise young, fit, speedy and completely able-bodied.

We see this in many things like parking as well - where plenty of people are not in a position to qualify for a blue badge, but are nevertheless elderly, frail, unsteady, slow and/or whatever - and in no way whatsoever enjoy parity with the stereotypical young, healthy, able-bodied driver who can pull up, jump out and race away to do their errands in minimal time.

I put this because everything I use the loo in a well known high street store which is cramped, I hear women saying this to each other lol.

Is the vicar or pastor of the church a male, by any chance? Or are the people running it - deacons, churchwardens etc also predominantly male?

I’ve noticed that people ( of all ages) are spending longer in the cubicle too, it’s very annoying. Unless they are on a period, sorting out a child as well or have a disability how how it take so long to whip your knickers down, wee, wipe, flush, pull your knickers up and go out of the cubicle to wash your hands? I’m 68 and am out of the cubicle very quickly.
And as for selfish people in airplane toilets, redoing their makeup, hair and getting changed - height of selfishness