Fed up with the long queues for women's toilets, 20 women marched into a men's public toilet in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, carrying placards calling for equal waiting times for both sexes, hopefully this will result in more cubicles for women and better use of public space in the future, says an article in Chongqing Times. Excerpts:

It has become increasingly awkward that due to the limited number of cubicles women have to line up and wait a long time to use a toilet, especially in busy public places such as bus stations, department stores, parks and restaurants. These students, through their "occupation" have called for the number of cubicles for women to be twice the number for men.

It is not only an appeal for women's rights, but also an appeal for public space to be distributed more appropriately. In this respect it has nothing to do with gender, it is about how to utilize public facilities and resources more efficiently.

Without sufficient data, it is difficult to set a ratio for the women's cubicles to men's required, but the idea that women's cubicles should outnumber men's is obviously reasonable.

In fact, Han Zhipeng, a member of Guangzhou city committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, proposed last year that the number of women's cubicles should be increased, and the local authority responded to the proposal positively.

It might take a long time to implement, due to the need to change the construction plans of facilities already in the works, but it is something we should set in motion as soon as possible.

(China Daily 03/01/2012 page9)