Queues: Silicon Valley and its men’s room problem

Dan Ackerman tweeted this picture from the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco (@danackerman)

It’s a sight to cheer any woman who has suffered the ignominy of queuing for the loos at festivals and theatres as the chaps swan past in their droves, no line to hamper their call of nature.

Dan Ackerman, editor of tech website CNET, posted a picture from the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco showing a line of men waiting for the lavs.

This sight is becoming a familiar trope at tech shows. Search the net and you’ll find the fellas lining up at 2013 Consumer Electronics show, Google I/O, South by Southwest and lots more beside. Funny as it is, it also shines an unflattering light on one facet of the tech world: its glaring lack of women.

In fact the photo genre has spawned a Twitter account, @WomenInLine, which aims to promote “women in tech so we can achieve the ultimate goal of having to wait in line at a software conference ladies’ room”. Noble aim, but at the moment a fairly distant dream.