Consideration or discrimination: Female only parking bays spark online storm

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A karaoke hall (KTV) in Zhengzhou in central China's Henan province has created parking bays specifically for female drivers.

The KTV hall says that the extra wide spaces painted in pink are intended as a caring gesture to female customers, but they have sparked an explosive debate on social media.

A overview of a parking lot. /AFP Photo

Some web users have praised the parking bays, calling them a "behavior of love," but some women have slammed them as gender discrimination which sets a dividing line between women and men.

Female bays wider than regular parking spots

On July 25, a video about the parking bays was posted online at Pear Video. The clip pointed out that at almost 2.8 meters, the female bays were 17 centimeters wider than regular parking spots, leading to complaints that they were assuming women were poor drivers.

A screenshot from the video showing the differentce betweeo female parking lot and normal ones.

"The wider bay is to make it easier for our female customers to park, and this row of parking space allows female customers to get in and out easily without parking spaces in front and behind them," said a staff member at the KTV location.

Consideration or discrimination?

Some female drivers have praised the considerate behavior of the KTV manager but others online have blasted the special treatment as discrimination.

Weibo comment: "Why isn't it called a novice parking lot? So strange."

Weibo comment: "Just call it a widened parking space or normal parking lot, why classify parking by sex, isn't it discriminatory to straight men?"

Weibo comment: "When we show caring, you say it's discrimination, when we don't, you say it's not inclusive.”

But this isn't the first time that female only parking bays have caused a blizzard of complaints in China.

In 2016, reports surfaced that the Zhengzhou North High-speed Service Area introduced parking spaces for women, which were a lot wider than standard ones.

Nanjing and Shanghai have also launched female parking bays which were much discussed while Guangzhou and Shenzhen, two cities that introduced female-only subway cars, also prompted controversy.

What if it's called "novice or widened parking spaces"?

But whether the new bays in Zhengzhou are considerate or discriminatory, some netizens have pointed out that the key to the debate is the intent.

The KTV staff said that their intention was not to be discriminatory and they only wanted to help their female customers.

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