This topic sufaces here every now and again, with people reporting on the way that in some locations, the brothers tape paper over the mirrors in the ladies toliets, in order to speed things up and reduce queues.
I posted this a couple of years ago, but I'm resurrecting it now because I think this is relevant and interesting:
This link:
http://www.crowddynamics.com/Queueing/ladies.html
Will take you to an interesting article all about queuing theory as applied to ladies and mens toilet facilities.
What it says in a nutshell is that it's a well known fact that - for all sorts of obvious reasons - ladies take longer than men in the rest room. The article quotes "worldwide studies" that show that ladies take on average 89 seconds to use the restroom as opposed to 39 seconds for a man, almost two-and-a-half times as long.
What's not so well known is that, according to queuing theory and the phenomenon of clustering, this difference results in queue lengths not two-and-a-half times as long, but the SQUARE of that number: more than 5.
In other words, if everything else was equal, you would expect the queues outside the ladies room to be more than five times longer than any queue outside the mens.
But of course, everything else is not equal.
To begin with, in a sporting facility (often used for assemblies) there is NOT a parity of facilities in the first place - there's usually a bias towards the expected male-dominated crowd.
Secondly, with any family-based attendance, it's usually the mother taking care of the needs of the babies and small children, which slows things up considerably.
Lastly, Witnesses in particular expect people to dress formally, which means more fussy, complicated clothing.
All of which explains why you have such horrendous queues for the ladies at the assemblies.
Now, you can't blame the Watchtower society for being ignorant of basic queuing theory. Well you can, but it's not fair to single them out. Ignorance of the dynamics of ladies and mens toilets-queues is overwhelmingly apparent everywhere, in all sorts of "worldly" events - pop concerts, country fairs, festivals, in fact at any temporary event where people are gathered and toilet facilities are provided. There is ALWAYS a long queue for the ladies. Nobody is ever brave enough to plan for what is needed - which is, in fact, two-and-a half times as many ladies toilets as mens.
Just to achieve parity.
But what sets the Watchtower events apart is the sheer contempt for the poor sheep; the readiness to blame the individual; the anti-female bias; in seeing the problem and jumping to the (frankly insulting) conclusion that the vain and silly sisters must be spending too long in front of the mirrors.
And then ham-fistedly trying to "remedy" the problem by taping over the mirrors.
Jehovah's wise and oh-so-loving Organisation, eh?