Gender-based discrimination in the configuration of restrooms at major airports in the United States of America, South Africa and China

Abstract

Quite often, long queues can be observed at restrooms allocated to females at airports. Queuing is generally experienced negatively. At the same time, queues are seldom observed at the restrooms allocated to males. This amounts to unequal treatment. If unequal treatment is perceived to be unfair, this leads to negative emotions and mental health outcomes. In this research the configuration of toilets in restrooms was studied as it was hypothesized that the configurations may be instrumental to the observed gender-specified lengths of the queues. Four side-by-side restrooms were visited at six large international airports, two per country. Not one of the 24 restrooms designed for female use had an equal number of toilets to the 24 restrooms designated for males. Females were afforded fewer restroom facilities than males. This tendency was observed at airports in South Africa and China, and to a lesser extent in the United States of America. It is recommended that those who design restrooms for airports should be informed that the current configuration of restrooms results in gender-based discrimination. More, or alternative, restroom facilities need to be provided to females to minimize this effect. Redesigning restrooms should be done with cognizance of the gender-specific requirements of restroom users.