> Why is this a thing in the US?

Cheapness. A door with bigger gaps requires less maintenance. Same reason they use partial/floating walls. They're easy to remove for maintenance, easy to replace when damaged, easier to clean, etc. Public bathrooms are an unwanted expense to most building owners.

Just make them all unisex. What's wrong with unisex bathrooms, so long as they have partitions and not troughs or heads out in the open and have the urinals sectioned off at one end.

I answered this in my post...

> I have no issue with gender neutral bathrooms, but from what I hear around the watercooler, women's bathrooms are a LOT nastier than men's (or at least that's how women tell it). Too many women trying to hover and getting it wrong.

If the stalls are cleaned out nightly I don't see there being a cleanliness issue. People with gastric issues can cause nastier environs irrespective of sex or gender.

And if hovering is an issue then clean nightly so people don't feel they need to hover and second educate. Talk about it... Lastly think about squat toilets. Easy maintenance.

"But it would be interesting if companies starting doing a "private bathroom" as a perk again"

Given decent wifi coverage, that bathroom would then have better working conditions than the stylish but low productivity open office, raising lots of questions, so its not possible until after open offices are no longer trendy.

ArtLebedev in Moscow did have "designer" single bathrooms as a perk: http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/toilets/

In the US most women feel men's bathrooms are nastier, and refuse to use them in general. Hovering & "seatpissing" is highly regional; almost none in the midwest of the US, while much higher (70% of seats?) in some parts of Europe (I am afraid in my experience Portugal is worst). Can't remember but the coasts are worse than the Midwest in the US and regions in California also differ.

It's partly a result of how clean you expect things to be to start with: if you don't trust that seats will be clean, you won't sit, and then you'll guarantee they're not clean. If you expect them to be clean, they'll remain clean(ish).

Building/fire codes are a big factor. When you have enclosed spaces with doors that shut tightly then a variety of regulations come into play, whereas with a loosely-fitting partition with a gap underneath they do not. If push came to shove you could kick most partitions and they would have enough flex to pop the door open, or you could crawl out on the floor.

Apart from that - the ability to see if the stall is occupied without tugging on the door and perhaps causing an awkward encounter, making it more difficult to smoke or shoot up stealthily, and just simple cost/ease of installation.

>Why is this a thing in the US? I legitimately don't understand it.

People are less ashamed of such mundane things. US being a new country is not bound to the same social taboos that you see everywhere else.

Also practical reasons like, easier to see when its empty, ease of cleaning, ventilation ect.

> easier to see when its empty

Is a little dial connected to the lock saying "engaged/vacant" or green/red that difficult to see?

We don't have those on American bathroom stalls, but it would be useful.

Oh if only US restrooms were like those in Japan. Even run of the mill ones in Japan are great.

I'm just glad they're not like some French bathrooms. Essentially a drain hole in the floor. Try to hit it.