A Strategy for 'Potty Parity'

Selfridges was the first ever store in Britain to provide a women’s lavatory.  What a boon these conveniences must have been to women who previously were forced to (discreetly) relieve themselves in the open.  Given the relative abundance of public toilets for women today, it might be difficult to believe that in the 1900s women had to urinate publicly, but they did indeed: the inner linings of Victorian dresses often were stained by urine, suggesting that women used these garments to “cloak the practice of urinating while standing outside in public” (Cavanagh, 2010, p.38).  The ability to access a public convenience must have given women—at least those who could afford to pass through the doors of Selfridges—a considerable sense of liberation and respect: at last someone acknowledged their need for bodily relief (even if the intent likely had a mercenary motive).  But, the social subordination of women in the early 1900s—interpreted here as the absence of public toilets for women—is not an anachronistic relic of a traditional society.  No, even in today’s ‘modern’ society, where it would be inconceivable that public toilets for women are nonexistent, gender parity in the public restroom is missing; women often need to stand in an everlasting line and ‘hold it’ while their male counterparts readily breeze in and out of the loo.  But, what, exactly, constitutes gender parity in the restroom?  More precisely, what are the metrics of ‘potty parity’?  Certainly not an equal amount of toilet stalls for men and women (for numerous reasons women have a greater need than men for public toilets).  This model is outmoded and clearly does not work.  And, critically, if a metric for measuring ‘potty parity’ did exist, (how) would it be implemented?  I think that, like other elements of public toilet provision, a metric for potty parity would develop organically out of a dedicated and deliberate public toilet provision strategy.  I believe that the development of a public toilet strategy that incorporates feedback from collaborative planning exercises is critical to the establishment of an effective and sustainable public toilet program.  And I believe that by considering variables such as age, disability, gender, public health, and homelessness, as well as elements such as location, design, and cost, planners, architects, and urban designers would uncover a metric (or metrics) for measuring gender parity in the public restroom.  Indeed, by ensuring the provision of accessible, clean, and sufficient public toilets, the creation of a public toilet strategy would go a long way towards enabling all people to participate in urban life, and thus towards creating a healthier, more liveable, and more equitable city. 

Cavanagh, S.L. (2010). Queering bathrooms: Gender, sexuality, and the hygienic imagination. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.