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"Women, please use the women's restroom."
A notice reading "No women allowed" posted in a men's restroom at a highway rest stop during the Chuseok holiday has drawn attention online. Complaints appear to have piled up after some women used the men's restroom to avoid long lines at the women's facilities.
The episode has split opinion between those asking "what if the genders were reversed" and those arguing that the recurring shortage of women's restrooms during holidays should be addressed first.
Women's Fixtures Should Outnumber Men's, but Some Sites Have 30 Fewer
Data submitted by the Korea Expressway Corporation to Rep. Cho In-chul of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly's Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, showed on the 28th that numerous highway rest stops have as many or more fixtures in men's restrooms than in women's.
The current Public Toilets Act requires the number of toilet bowls in women's restrooms to be at least equal to the combined number of toilet bowls and urinals in men's restrooms, and at least 1.5 times that number at locations and facilities designated by presidential decree. The aim is to secure more fixtures for women at heavily used facilities such as highway rest stops.
In practice, however, some sites had more fixtures for men. At the Geumgang rest stop on the Gyeongbu Expressway in the Busan-bound direction, men's fixtures numbered 82 against 52 for women, a gap of 30. The Haengdamdo rest stop on the West Coast Expressway had 110 for men and 70 for women.
The Daecheon rest stop in the Seoul-bound direction had 38 for men and 26 for women, while the Mokpo-bound side had 27 and 25, respectively. At the Anseongmatchum rest stop on the Pyeongtaek-Jecheon Expressway in the Jecheon-bound direction, both stood at 39. The Gangneung rest stop on the Yeongdong Expressway, the Gyeongju and Cheonan Hodu rest stops on the Gyeongbu Expressway, the Danyang Palgyeong rest stop on the Jungang Expressway and the Seocheon rest stop on the West Coast Expressway also had a one-to-one ratio.
Even the budget for temporary restrooms to handle holiday congestion is shrinking. According to Cho, the Korea Expressway Corporation's budget for installing temporary restrooms during peak periods such as Seollal and Chuseok fell from 110 million won in 2024 to 90 million won in 2025 and 40 million won this year, a 63.6% drop in two years.
'No Women Allowed' in the Men's Room: 'Crossing the Line' vs. 'Look at the Shortage'
Against this backdrop, a photo of a notice posted in a men's restroom at a highway rest stop recently spread on social media.
The notice read "No women allowed in the men's restroom," along with the message: "We are receiving a flood of complaints. Please use the men's restroom only if you are male. Women, please use the women's restroom."
The person who posted the photo said they came across the notice after stopping at the rest area while driving to Yeosu in the early morning hours. It is presumed that some female visitors used the men's restroom as lines grew long at the women's facilities, and the rest stop posted the notice after complaints followed.
Criticism poured in online. Some users said, "Does something this obvious have to be posted on a sign?" and "The reaction would have been different if a man had gone into the women's restroom." Others noted that men's restrooms often have urinals outside the stalls, so a woman entering can make men using them feel uncomfortable or embarrassed.
Others said the practical situation facing female users should also be taken into account. Every user of a women's restroom needs an individual stall, and when crowds arrive all at once during holidays, lines often stretch outside the rest stop building. The Korea Expressway Corporation data cited above also showed that some rest stops have as few or fewer fixtures for women than for men.
Some comments ran along the lines of "the line at the women's restroom is really long when you go to a rest stop during the holidays" and "you can't unconditionally condemn someone for an urgent bodily need." Still, because such shortages do not justify women using men's restrooms, some are calling for facility improvements to reduce recurring congestion alongside adherence to gender-designated use.
'It Is Wrong, but Punishment Is Not the Only Answer': A Lawyer's View on the Issues
So can a woman who enters a men's restroom actually be held legally responsible?
Kwak Jun-ho, an attorney at law firm Cheong, told The Seoul Economic Daily on the 28th that since men's and women's restrooms are meant to be used separately, a woman entering a men's restroom is not desirable behavior and should be refrained from. But he said that when someone uses a restroom to avoid long lines during a holiday or when tour bus passengers arrive all at once, the specific circumstances and purpose should also be examined.
He also drew a line at viewing the controversy as a simple matter of "reverse discrimination between men and women." "When it is clear there is no sexual purpose, approaching it as 'why are men punished for entering a women's restroom while women are fine' disregards practical circumstances," Kwak said.
Separately from the fact that male users may feel embarrassment or discomfort, he said caution is also needed in immediately linking every case to criminal punishment. "It is not desirable and it is something that should not be done, but insisting that all of this must lead to punishment goes a bit too far," Kwak said.
Ultimately, the argument goes, reducing the recurring controversy requires addressing the facility shortage that repeats every holiday rather than faulting only individual behavior. "Since this happened temporarily because of poor practical conditions, rather than going straight to punishment, it is preferable to improve the system first and let it gradually disappear on its own," Kwak said.
Cho said, "The endless lines in front of women's restrooms during every holiday homecoming trip were not simply the result of visitors arriving all at once, but the outcome of desk-bound administration — the Korea Expressway Corporation leaving substandard facilities unattended and cutting budgets." He said the corporation should assess restroom demand and congestion levels and expand facilities accordingly.
