Ladies Room Lines: Prof Flushes Out the Truth

Women always knew it.

And now there’s a woman who has gotten a big award from the American Society of Interior Designers for saying it: There are not enough toilets in public restrooms for women.

“One day, as I stood in this line for the bathroom,” recalls Sandra Rawls, “I thought that’s just the way it is for women, but I started wondering why.”

From these little moments of frustration came the flush heard ‘round the world. Rawls, an assistant professor of housing and interior design at the University of Missouri-Columbia, decided public bathrooms would be the subject of her doctoral dissertation.

Hooking up with Virginia Tech housing professor Savannah Day, Rawls began collecting data at four sites in Virginia--a highway rest area, a sports arena, an airport and a conference center. Using stopwatches, they timed 230 men and 234 women, and, when subjects came out, asked them to fill out confidential questionnaires.

‘A Sensitive Side’

“This kind of research has a sensitive side,” says Rawls, “so we stayed outside so as not to infringe on privacy.”

Researchers set up a model of what might make people take longer, including what they did in there, what features they liked, whether they needed more toilets, whether there was a need for more places to put carried things, whether children slowed them down and how much time they spent on elimination, washing and grooming activities.

What Rawls found was not surprising. Women take more than twice as long as men: three minutes versus 84 seconds. It has little to do with primping, a reason many people cite for the time difference.

Instead, she found that women take longer because of clothing restrictions, a lack of time-saving equipment and the accompaniment of small children. Pregnancy also is cited as a factor.

Study Sparked Change

Her award-winning study became the backbone of a successful effort last November by John A. Rollison III of Woodbridge, Va., to change that state’s building code concerning the number of women’s toilets. The new rules, which took effect in March, double the number of restrooms for women in new museums, stadiums and churches.

“We’ve gotten a lot of response from women across country,” says Rollison, who has been dubbed the father of potty parity. “They all say we’ve done something positive for them and that something should have been done long before.”

New York has just passed similar legislation. And the National Conference of Building Officials and Code Administrators, which establishes criteria for restrooms in a number of northeastern and Midwestern states, are considering calling for changes in other states.

Says Rawls: “There is a need for changes. If men had to wait, you can be sure there would be more toilets.”