This Chinese Town Thinks Women Need More Room and Pink Lines to Park

Pink women-only parking space (Credit: © xinhuanet.com)

We all have that friend or significant other who just can’t park without taking up more than one space. Sometimes you think it would be great if businesses had just a few slightly wider spaces for these people. Well, one Chinese town did just that, but there is one massive issue… they are all for females only.

You read that right, the eastern metropolis of Hangzhou has been offering these woman-only spaces since March 2016. What’s more, they took the sexism up a notch by outlining them in a pretty pink and painting a woman in a dress on them. The town is now catching a little backlash from some of its population, and rightfully so.

The backlash, however, hasn’t resulted in any change as the service area’s manager, Pan Tietong, claims that “the bigger parking spaces are for women drivers whose driving skills are not superb,” and that “It’s a humane measure.” So, I guess there are no bad male drivers who need these spaces… hmmm, interesting.

What’s more surprising is that a survey on Weibo (China’s version of Twitter) claims that 63.7 percent of respondents favor these female-only spaces.

This is not the only time that female-only “conveniences” in China have drawn the ire of the public. Earlier in May, Beijing Capital International Airport debuted its pink-highlighted female-only security lines aimed to prevent women from having their gutchies pulled out in front of male passengers should their bags need to be searched. In 2014, a Chinese business also offered up widened parking spaces for women. Both of these earlier instances were also met with backlash but ultimately stayed in place.

I am willing to bet that, like the other stereotype-based “conveniences,” these parking spaces will remain in place.