So the WTO (World Toilet Organisation) is proposing that there should be mandatory rules about the number of female places in toilets:
The code requires medium-sized restaurants, bars and
nightclubs to have as many female cubicles as they have male cubicles
and urinals.
Larger venues, and those such as
theatres and cinemas where usage is confined to peak periods, would
have to favour women’s facilities by a ratio of 14:10.
"It’s very important where there are a lot of people," said Elisabeth Maria-Huba, a German social scientist.
"Women need longer. And in a lot of cases women have to arrange themselves to go out again."
Leave aside what I consider to be the absurdity of such rules and regulations in and of themselves. Private property owners should decide for themselves how they wish to cater to their clientele.
What’s worse is that they’ve got the number wrong. The longer period of time women take for their ablutions means that 14:10 is not enough. I’ve seen somewhere out there (Brian Caplan maybe?) a neat piece of maths which shows that the facilities required go up in a geometric progression, so that in fact we need, in large venues, 2 or even 4 times as many female places as male.
So, an international bureaucracy trampling on private property rights and at the same time getting the answer wrong. Colour me surprised.
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