Facility

She wants to change the world; she wants her world to change. She studies hard, chooses the unpopular subjects, fights to do them. She demands her parents rethink their expectations of her. She plans to fix things from the ground up. Put the basics in place.

Her first year at university is inspiring but tough. Support comes when she does not expect it but so to do the hurdles. The hurdles are relentless, the support occasional. She talks to her reflection often in the mirror. There is no one else who understands what she is trying to do. 

Her drafting lecturer thinks her hopeless. She did typing instead of drafting at school. Not her choice, drafting was not available for girls. Out of frustration she tells him and, now that he knows why she is so far behind, he opens the drafting room early for her each day. He does this for the first semester only, after that there are no more favours. If her annoyance about playing catch up ever subsides she could be grateful to him.

In the entire nine level lecture building there is one female toilet. It is on the ground floor. Her regular challenge is to get to lectures on time. The lifts between levels are notorious for overcrowding and being slow. Often it is faster to take the stairs, which is fine for only a level or two. She often goes from the seventh floor down to ground level to use the toilet. Then she goes up to the ninth floor for her next lecture. She is usually late and she interrupts the lecturer’s start. Her lecturers notice and judge her harshly. They imagine plenty of reasons for her behaviour but none of them get it right.

She keeps her focus. She completes her qualification. She takes up the offer to work with a consulting company. They appeal to her because they work on demanding projects in difficult places. They work on projects that can bring change. She works hard; ignores the occasional put downs, chooses her arguments with care. She learns. She persists.

Tenders are called to design and construct the largest airport yet to be built. Competition is savage; everyone is looking for an edge. The selling point, some element that differentiates their design, is lacking.

Her manager is in charge of their company’s tender submission and the deadline is not far off. She is not involved in the tender because her task is to direct his other projects for him while he is so swamped.

There is a brutal meeting between their leading project engineers and architects. Voices become raised as several plans, spread across the table, are continually reshuffled. They are renown for having flair, solving problems creatively and standing out. Their submission is good but it is not smarter, not brighter, not better. It changes nothing. The meeting breaks up but they continue to talk amongst themselves as they leave. Only her manager is silent. On his way past he puts the design folder on her desk. 

‘This is what we have, you are the only fresh eyes left around here – have a look at it will you?’ He utters to her.

She picks up the design folder, would it bite her? She puts it down again. Leaning back in her chair she contemplates how serious he is about wanting her input. He never ignores her work, he pushes her, expects a lot. She decides to dig in, to give this her full attention, her best honest effort. She pushes back from her desk slowly. She straightens up and goes in search of strong coffee and a new red pencil. It will be a long night.

At first look she can see no fault in it. It is ambitious but it is a sound and workable design. What can she possibly add? Then she sees it, what they have overlooked. The flaw.

Yet again women will be queuing, inconvenienced, cranky and misunderstood.

The next morning she walks into her manager’s office, a smile on her face and the design folder tucked under her arm. She asks him not to laugh, just to listen to her. Taking a deep breath, determined to keep a straight face, she begins.

She shows him her passenger traffic model, based on gender. She has his interest. She goes on. 

'This is a new model. It includes more realistic facility dwell times for women. Amongst other things it dictates that a radical change to the size, number and location of female toilets within the airport is needed.' He stays silent, taps his pen. She should leave it there; let him have some time to think it over. She should but she cannot.

'There should never be a queue and no one should have to miss a plane, or a meal, or a meeting or anything else because of an inadequate, poorly located or non existent toilet facility. The simple formula of duplicating the number of men’s toilets, and the outdated assumptions about the ratio of genders, is not appropriate or realistic.' She states emphatically.

He looks hard at her. He stops tapping his pen. She realises she has become a touch strident. 

She concedes that the extent of the change required is considerable. She assures him that she has checked her numbers. She admits reluctantly that the modelling is hard to believe. Looking past him to the airport design, pinned on his office wall, she then adds reflectively.

‘But it explains an awful lot. Life experience is difficult to refute.’

He turns away from her for a moment to also look at the proposed airport design fastened along his wall. He turns back to her, his movement deliberate, his question to her a surprise.

'How on earth did you get all this modelling done overnight?' 

'I touch type.' She replies with a shrug and a smile.

He asks her to stay put and calls in their principle design engineer, architect and cost estimator. They arrive in his office, mumbling mild protests about his summons. She goes through her presentation again, this time for their benefit. No one laughs. 

Their tender is not only successful but it is the centre of much discussion and consternation. They are inundated by enquiries about their traffic model and its’ application.

Resounding commendations come from the authorising Government Minister and the Chair of the Bank underwriting the airport project. It turns out that both of these women have a strong aversion to queuing for a facility.