In short, public ladies’ rooms should be clean, accessible (i.e., if we need one, we should be able to find one), with room to sit bags and to hang coats, with spaces for mothers and their children, and with supplies. A few writers also noted directly that restrooms also have a social networking function. (Try to duplicate that on the Internet!)

The same week that this blogfest was being held, there was a presentation that I saw on some television news cast about toilets designed for use in underdeveloped countries and in parts of the world with little water. I started thinking about all of the issues that were not discussed as part of the ladies’ room blogfest.

Granted, the reason for the blogfest was the annual kitchen & bath show and that guided us in our approaches to the topic. We did not discuss how much marketing or selling of products should take place in the ladies’ rooms. Do we sell perfume, tampons, condoms, diapers? We did not talk about the plumbing or the number of women maintenance workers. Having to jiggle the handles of public toilets and spend time adjusting sink faucets so they don’t drip, plus the times I’ve had to run to another floor in an office building because a man was fixing a toilet or faucet, I really should have given more time to these aspects of the experience. Maybe next year.