Potty parity
Encyclopedia
"Potty parity" is equal or equitable provision of washroom
Washroom
A public toilet is a room or small building containing one or more toilets and possibly also urinals which is available for use by the general public, or in a broader meaning of "public", by customers of other...

 facilities for women and men within a public space.

Gender-neutral toilets

Gender-neutral toilets are common in some contexts, including on aircraft
Aircraft lavatory
An aircraft lavatory is a small room on an aircraft with a toilet and sink.-Minimum standards:Lavatories per passenger provided aboard aircraft vary considerably from airline to airline and aircraft to aircraft...

, on trains or buses
Board toilet
thumb|Bord toilet of an aircraft .Board toilets are built-in rooms in vehicles, equipped with a toilet, for the use of human defecation.The small rooms also often are equipped with at least a sink, liquid soap and paper towels for hand washing...

, portable toilet
Portable toilet
Portable toilet are simple portable enclosures containing a chemical toilet which are typically used as a temporary toilet for construction sites and large gatherings and events. Most of the portable toilets have black open-front-U-shaped toilet seat with cover...

s, and accessible toilets
Accessible toilets
An accessible toilet is a special toilet designed to accommodate people with physical disabilities.Public toilets and restrooms can present accessibility challenges for people with disabilities, for example those in wheelchairs. Stalls may not be able to fit a wheelchair, and transferring between...

. In parts of Europe they are also common in buildings. In the United States, they began to appear in the 2000s on university campuses and in some up market restaurants.

Definition of parity

Parity may be defined in various ways in relation to facilities in a building. The simplest is as equal floorspace for men's and women's washrooms. Since men's rooms include urinals, which take up less space than stalls, this still results in more facilities for men. An alternative parity is by number of fixtures within washrooms. However since women on average spend more time in washrooms more men are able to use more facilities per unit time. More recent parity regulations therefore require more fixtures for women to ensure that the average time spent waiting to use the toilet
Toilet
A toilet is a sanitation fixture used primarily for the disposal of human excrement, often found in a small room referred to as a toilet/bathroom/lavatory...

 is the same for women as for men, or to equalise throughputs of men's and women's toilets.

Sex differences

Women spend more time in washrooms than men, for physiological and cultural reasons. The requirement to use a cubicle rather than a urinal means urination takes longer; twice as long on average in studies. Women also make more visits to washrooms. Urinary tract infection
Urinary tract infection
A urinary tract infection is a bacterial infection that affects any part of the urinary tract. Symptoms include frequent feeling and/or need to urinate, pain during urination, and cloudy urine. The main causal agent is Escherichia coli...

s and incontinence
Urinary incontinence
Urinary incontinence is any involuntary leakage of urine. It is a common and distressing problem, which may have a profound impact on quality of life. Urinary incontinence almost always results from an underlying treatable medical condition but is under-reported to medical practitioners...

 are more common in women. Pregnancy
Pregnancy
Pregnancy refers to the fertilization and development of one or more offspring, known as a fetus or embryo, in a woman's uterus. In a pregnancy, there can be multiple gestations, as in the case of twins or triplets...

, menstruation
Menstruation
Menstruation is the shedding of the uterine lining . It occurs on a regular basis in sexually reproductive-age females of certain mammal species. This article focuses on human menstruation.-Overview:...

, breastfeeding
Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding is the feeding of an infant or young child with breast milk directly from female human breasts rather than from a baby bottle or other container. Babies have a sucking reflex that enables them to suck and swallow milk. It is recommended that mothers breastfeed for six months or...

, and diaper
Diaper
A nappy or a diaper is a kind of pant that allows one to defecate or urinate on oneself discreetly. When diapers become soiled, they require changing; this process is often performed by a second person such as a parent or caregiver...

-changing increase usage. The elderly, who are disproportionately female, take longer and more frequent bathroom visits.

A variety of modified urinals and personal funnels has been invented to make it easier for women to urinate standing up. None has become widespread enough to affect policy formation on potty parity.

John F. Banzhaf III
John F. Banzhaf III
John Francis Banzhaf III is an American legal activist and a law professor at George Washington University Law School. He is the founder of the smoking pressure group Action on Smoking and Health....

, a law professor at George Washington University
George Washington University
The George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...

, calls himself the "father of potty parity." Banzhaf argues that to ignore potty parity, that is, to have merely equal facilities for men and women, constitutes a form of sex discrimination against women.
Several authors have identified potty parity as a potential rallying issue for feminism
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...

, since all women can identify with it.

History

Segregation of toilet facilities by race was outlawed in the United States by the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation...

. Provision of disabled-access facilities was mandated in federal buildings by the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968
Architectural Barriers Act of 1968
The Architectural Barriers Act of 1968 is an Act of Congress, enacted by President Lyndon B. Johnson.The ABA requires that facilities designed, built, altered, or leased with funds supplied by the United States Federal Government be accessible to the public...

 and in private buildings by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is a law that was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1990. It was signed into law on July 26, 1990, by President George H. W. Bush, and later amended with changes effective January 1, 2009....

. No federal legislation relates to provision of facilities for women. The banning of pay toilet
Pay toilet
A pay toilet is a public toilet that requires money payment of any individual to use. It may be street furniture or be inside a building, e.g. a mall, department store, railway station, restaurant, etc. The reason for charging money for using toilets usually is for the maintenance of the...

s, beginning in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 in 1975, came about because women had to pay to urinate whereas men only had to pay to defecate.

In many older buildings, little or no provision was made for women because few would work in or visit them. Increased gender equality in employment and other spheres of life has impelled change. Until the 1980s, building code
Building code
A building code, or building control, is a set of rules that specify the minimum acceptable level of safety for constructed objects such as buildings and nonbuilding structures. The main purpose of building codes are to protect public health, safety and general welfare as they relate to the...

s for stadium
Stadium
A modern stadium is a place or venue for outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit and view the event.)Pausanias noted that for about half a century the only event...

s in the United States stipulated more toilets for men, on the assumption that most sports fans were male. Facilities for female U.S. senators
Women in the United States Senate
There have been 39 women in the United States Senate since the establishment of that body in 1789. The first woman served in 1922, but women were first elected in number in 1992. As of 2011, 17 of the 100 senators are women...

 on the Senate Chamber level were first provided in 1992. Plaskow reports in 2008 that on the New York Hilton's ballroom floor, the women's room had four female stalls, compared to six stalls and six urinals in the men's room.

The first "Restroom Equity" Act was passed in California in 1989. It was introduced by then-Senator Arthur Torres after several long waits for his wife to return from the bathroom. LP Field
LP Field
LP Field is a football stadium in Nashville, Tennessee, United States, owned by the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County....

 in Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

 was built in 1999 in compliance with the Tennessee Equitable Restrooms Act, providing 288 fixtures for men and 580 for women. The Tennessean
The Tennessean
The Tennessean is the principal daily newspaper in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. Its circulation area covers 39 counties in Middle Tennessee and eight counties in southern Kentucky....

reported fifteen-minute waits at some men's rooms, compared to none at women's rooms. The Act was amended in 2000 to empower the state architect to authorize extra men's rooms at stadiums, horse shows and auto racing venues.

Regulations

Current laws in the United Kingdom require a 1:1 female–male ratio of restroom space in public buildings. The International Building Code
International Building Code
The International Building Code is a model building code developed by the International Code Council . It has been adopted throughout most of the United States.-History:...

 requires a 2:1 female–male ratio of toilets. New York City Council
New York City Council
The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of the City of New York. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs. The Council serves as a check against the mayor in a "strong" mayor-council government model. The council monitors performance of city agencies and...

 passed a law in 2005 requiring this in all public buildings. An advisory ruling had been passed in 2003. U.S. state laws vary between 1:1, 3:2, and 2:1 ratios. The Uniform Plumbing Code
Uniform Plumbing Code
Designated as an American National Standard, the Uniform Plumbing Code is a model code developed by the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials to govern the installation and inspection of plumbing systems as a means of promoting the public's health, safety and welfare.The...

 specifies a 4:1 ratio in movie theater
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....

s.
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