[New York, September 17. Image via Getty.]

A woman poses sitting on a toilet made of key cards as the first-ever key card hotel is unveiled September 17, 2009 in New York to celebrate the relaunching of 1,200 Holiday Inn hotels globally. The 400-square-foot (37.16-sq-meter) hotel is made of more than 200,00 key cards and weighs 4,000 pounds (1,814.3kgs). AFP PHOTO TIMOTHY A. CLARY (Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)

The ratio of female to male cubicles in public toilets will be debated at the event, and it seems like something businesses rarely get right. As Kathyrn Anthony of the American Restroom Association said back in May, "Until men have menstrual periods, until men get pregnant, or until men breast-feed or have babies, we'll always have a need for potty parity."

But how will the Toilet Leaders decide what potty parity is? Do women need double the number of toilets? Triple?

Of course, most of us have the luxury of indoor plumbing, but World Toilet Organization founder Jack Sim says there are an estimated 2.5 billion people in the world who still do not have access to a hygienic toilet. The conference will include cool new stuff, ike self-cleaning toilets, solar-powered commodes which run without water, and recyclable systems that convert waste into biogas, which can be used to provide hot water for bathing and washing.

Back to potty parity: Have you been someplace recently where you felt like there weren't enough toilets for women? The movie theater comes to mind. Any other locales in need of potty parity?

Potty Parity: Summit to Discuss Lack of Women's Restrooms [Live Science]
Toilet Summit Tackles Issue of 'Potty Parity' for Women [Newser]
Earlier: Pooping: The New Hot Shit
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Image via Flickr

[London, August 7. Image via Splash.]

When I had a real job, I worked in a small office on a floor with two other offices and one particularly bad Tinkler. Frustrated, I hung signs in bathroom, illustrated with toilet clip art and accompanied with admonishments that the Tinkler please stop, well, tinkling. It didn't work, so one day, I went to the bathroom earlier, figuring that I might catch the Tinkler in the act and wouldn't you know it, the minute I stepped inside the restroom, I spotted a woman coming out of a stall containing a urine-soaked toilet seat. "Aren't you going to clean that up?" I said. Without hesitation — and despite being caught in the act — she replied, "Oh, that wasn't me." Argh! My rage knew no bounds, but my bladder did, so I ducked into the handicapped stall to pee and seethe.

Why do they do it? Is it, as one colleague of Ms. Kogan surmises, a primitive, gesture mean to mark one's space? A passive-aggressive way of giving the finger to an unwelcoming office environment? Or is it, as one Jezebel staffer once philosophized, just a symptom of the Tragedy Of The Commons? I get that some people don't want to sit on public toilet seats, but can't they at least clean up after themselves? The sad truth is that those who spend their days peeing on toilet seats are giving birth to a new generation of seat hoverers, a snowball effect that proves exceptionally detrimental to those of us who actually poop at work as well. As Kogan puts it, "I'm not asking for cloth napkins and classical music. I don't need a mint on my pillow. I just want a bit of common courtesy, a modicum of civility, a touch of class, or, failing all that, a good supply of Lysol."

Beware of 'The Tinkler' [CNN]

Earlier: The Office Annoyance No One Really Talks About
No One Pees On The Seats At Glamour Magazine Anymore

Related: Logn Lines At Women's Toilets? It's The Law [NPR]