Ladies’ bathrooms should be triple the size of men’s rooms, NPC delegate proposes

The delegate argues that too many of China’s public toilets continue to operate under old, outdated ideas

Amid China’s “toilet revolution,” a National People’s Congress delegate has stepped forward with a daring new proposal, arguing that public toilet space ought to be allocated fairly, not equally among sexes.

Delegate Zhu Lieyu (朱列玉), the head of a Guangdong law firm, says that on average women take anywhere from three to five times longer than men at public restrooms at tourist sites, resulting in long lines outside of the ladies’ room, while stalls in the men’s room are inefficiently unoccupied.

Considering that statistic and other data, Zhu has proposed that national regulations for public toilets be changed so that the space allocated is not 50/50, but 75/25 in favor of women, according to The Paper.

On Weibo, it appears that most netizens are fully in favor of this proposal, arguing also that more space should be allocated for family rooms for the benefit of mothers with small children.

China first launched its so-called “toilet revolution” back in 2015, aiming to improve infamously crappy public toilets in China’s crowded cities and particularly at its tourist sites and in rural areas.

Zhu says that the revolution has achieved remarkable results, but argues that there are still too many old facilities, which operate under old ideas that have not kept pace with social development. He adds that while gender-neutral toilets can help to alleviate traffic jams, they carry along their problems with privacy and perverts.

A district in the city of Wuhan can certainly not be accused of lack of progressive toilet thinking. Earlier this month, its urban management committee was mocked for a job recruitment advert seeking a pair of prospective public toilet managers which required that applicants for the positions be under 30 years old and have at least a bachelor’s degree.