Cross Your Legs, Ladies

Katherine Mangu-Ward | May 15, 2008

NPR reports on a new call for "potty parity," this time from men.

Designers of a new arena in St. Louis thought they were doing a good thing by putting more toilets in the women's restrooms. But as architecture professor Kathryn Anthony explains, their modest effort is only one small step in a direction that will require broad legislation.

Some cities and counties already have laws requiring extra ladies toilets--sometimes as many as quadruple the number of available for men.

And then there's this:

[University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign architecture professor and board member of the American Restroom Association Kathryn] Anthony says the issue of restroom access is so important that the free market can't be trusted.

Indeed.

Personally, I've always favored the personal responsibility approach: I'll march right in and use a single stall men's room if it's empty and there's a lock on the door.

Listen to the whole show here.