To hate mixed sex toilets?

[Futurehappiness]

We have them at work. They are the only kind....no female toilets option.

Single fully enclosed cubicles in a row. They are claustrophobic & can be very smelly. I actually don't feel they are all that safe; what if somebody was taken ill & fainted in one? Nobody would know.....at least in ladies toilets there is a gap at the top/bottom and people coming and going, that just feels a lot safer to me.

I don't know why I mind when I am going to the loo and see a man coming in/out of a cubicle but I do. The toilets do get dirty & smelly because many people don't clean up after themselves properly, I am sure they are worse than ladies' ones.

I don't know why it is a thing for so many people to try to force/rattle the door when not sure whether a cubicle is occupied, risking breaking the (flimsy, often broken) locks - I am sure it is worse too than in ladies' toilets. What is wrong with knocking, or gently trying the door? Why would people not be specially conscious of not invading others' privacy in mixed loos? And of course in a mixed toilet there is a risk here of a bloke bursting in when you are on the toilet.

I am realising that I am actually trying to avoid needing to go to the loo at work. By not drinking too much water (even in this hot weather) or holding on until I get home. This is all new to me to feel this way, but I would feel awkward to complain, wouldn't know how to present the complaint, and don't know if I would be taken seriously or labelled as a troublemaker.

Unfortunately your instincts are right. They are less safe and less hygienic.

They are unsafe compared to single sex toilet cubicles with door gaps. Single sex toilets are the only ones regulated to have door gaps.

Regulations mean new toilet designs have to have a mechanism to open the door outwards from the outside (overriding an inwards opening door). They are not truly secure. This is because so many people collapse in the toilet cubicle. To put it bluntly, if you were out and felt like you were about to vomit or soil yourself you would rush to nearest public loo. Also the very act of elimination can set off cardiac arrests. You end up with a confined space where 11% of people have cardiac arrests. Then there’s people with other emergencies such as strokes, hypos, seizures, choking incidents. Toilets in nightclubs are of particular concern - I saved a young women’s life because I saw her blue hand inside her cubicle floor as soon as I entered the ladies. She had stopped breathing after choking on her own vomit. We got her out by climbing over the door, pushing her body out the way to open the door, got the sick out of her mouth and whacked her on the back until she brought up a bit more sick and started breathing. It was probably too much alcohol but also that’s where people end up after spikings and feeling unwell. Or go to take illegal drugs.

So you have to have a mechanism to open the door to retrieve a body. The problem is universal toilets are built to resist the passage of sound and the occupant can’t see out (to see if anyone is waiting) and no one can see in. I know of an incident where a man let himself into a cubicle and sexually assaulted a woman in a pub. Woman have also been pushed back in when exiting. There have been children led into toilets and raped. Women and children have been assaulted in toilets in supermarkets, train carriages, train stations, schools, nightclubs. Of course consensual sex happens a lot in toilets too.

The hygiene is worse and they smell because they are enclosed. It has been proven there’s more pathogens in the air and microbes on surfaces within the cubicle.

Everyone is safer in a public toilet with door gaps. Which means single sex toilets. As soon as there’s ambiguity, even the women’s designs go fully enclosed because voyeurism.

Obviously you’re still going to have mixed sex in cafes and train carriages with less room, which is allowed under regulations, but we need to bring back the door gaps for health and safety by having as many single sex toilets as possible, with an area in front of the toilets that is also single sex.

I have never been in a women's toilets that was anywhere near as bad as the mens in the same venue. Yes, you do get grotty women's toilets, especially in rougher pubs, and I'm sure a regularly cleaned mens toilet in a posh office will be nicer than those. But compare like for like and the mens is always worse. The smell for one thing.

Jumping to some assumptions there. The toilets at my work are female only and the state they get into is quite frankly a disgrace... so it's not just men.

Most men hate them too in my experience.

They're OK if cleaned regularly

Would you prefer this set up if it was single sex over unisex?

We have this at work but it’s female only, so much nicer as no seats left up or piss on the floor!

I've never been in the mens to compare 😂
I assume you have a job that involves going into both?

I have told the manager in a local restaurant that has men’s toilets and mixed sex that I would not be returning as the smell was revolting.

I have done a lot of research on school toilets (they have been the ‘canaries in the coal mine’ for mixed sex toilets). The results are unsafe, unhygienic and probably discriminate against girls and the medically vulnerable. The Department of Education hold no risk assessments on their enclosed designs.

No, it was just a hobby! Seriously, yes. Not now, but at one time.

My old workplace had a massive building redevelopment when they expanded, which included a new toilet block that was only mixed. I grew up in a house with one toilet and three brothers so my hygeine standards for mixed sex toilets are fairly low yet I found the new block utterly gross.

Most importantly, as an epileptic I really did not feel comfortable using an enclosed room.

Luckily, they kept the old loos near our office so the women in my team would just use the old ones. The toilets might have been a bit old school but at least they were relatively clean and safe to use.

I actually prefer them and go upstairs to use them at work in preference to the single sex female ones that are available on my floor. I hadn't thought about the safety issue and on this you have a pointi think. From a purely personal point of view however, I like the extra privacy they provide.

However , we have loads of different sorts of toilets at work ( a university) so there are never any queues or many people at all outside them. I was at an event at the weekend where there were only a few mixed sex individual toilets and I found I did not like waiting for the toilets with men in the queue.

I am sure many people would not mind but I am older and am not used to men in my space when using a toile, so found it very uncomfortable, So much so, that I waited until the break was over and the queues had disappeared before using the loo, which made me late back to the event . I only make that point as I was somewhat surprised at my visceral discomfort at having to queue along side men to use the loo, especially since I use these types of toilets at work with no issue.

I’ve never noticed seats left up or piss on the floor but maybe I just work with more well-trained men!

I get what your saying some women only toilets ive been in ive walked back out.
This happen to me on Tuesday just gone the went to the womens loos in town god it was rank the stench was awful.
Dirty pads on the floor tucked behind the sanitary bin.

we have a unisex toilet at work, usually only used by a few women. It remains perfectly clean despite only receiving the attentions of the cleaner weekly. Occasionally our building is hired out to various mixed groups. Without fail it will be disgusting after with wee everywhere and often skid marks. Absolutely grim. And as for public unisex toilets? Always beyond disgusting in a way then women’s only never get. I actually observed shit on the seat at a rather nice tourist attraction once. Disgraceful.

Thank you for posting. I am trying to get the Department of Education to change their standard designs for secondary schools. They only have a 5mm gap between the floor and the door and can’t show me any risk assessments. There’s roughly 12 children with epilepsy in an average secondary school. Then obviously all the children with diabetes and heart conditions.

Schools have to stipulate why they should have doorgaps on their specific school design briefs, and deviate from the standard!

I prefer them. There should be far more out there

Why do you prefer them?

This is what I was going to say - the toilet seats! I don’t want to touch a toilet seat in order to use the toilet the only way I can because someone else has exercised an option to use it differently, when they are capable of using it either way.

There’s a big sign saying to place the seat and lid down after using the toilet but then men just ignore it.

I quite like the option of them when I’m going places with my DS but there are no children at work, and they shouldn’t be the only option unless space is at a premium .

Because the regulations say mixed sex loos need sinks and dryers inside them, this means queues get longer as everyone takes more time. With just loos in the cubicle, and a single sex queuing area outside the cubicle, it means you have to have the door gaps which increase ventilation and also stop people doing things in the cubicle which take up more time (washing, drying hands and preening being the most obvious but there’s allsorts others get upto).

It's amazing how many women will totally ignore graphics like this, about child safety, because they've been conditioned to put the wishes of a tiny minority of vocal men first!

Keep up your good work with this, safety should always come first.

I love them! But I get terrible periods and also have a medical issue that means sometimes I need to poo when out and I’m so self conscious so I feel so much better when in one of these types. I accept not everyone does though.

I never thought much about this before I started researching toilet safety. Now I realise this can be abused. Why should a mixed sex adult-child combination have more privacy than a same sex adult-child combination?

Unfortunately the privacy in toilets (includes disabled toilets btw) has led to some horrific incidents with children in very public places.

I think children should be able to accompany their parents into toilet blocks up until a certain age. I thought 8 was standard but the government are indicating 10.

Nobody objects to chn using female loos with their mother.