Women's toilets (lack of)

[SnozzberryPie]

I've just moved to a new office and there are only two women's toilets for the whole building. I'm not sure how many people work there but enough that there is often a queue and the lack of toilets is a common cause of complaints amongst female staff.

The men's toilets are in a room of the same size as the women's, but as well as two cubicles there are (apparently - I haven't actually been in to investigate!) also two urinals.

I should also mention that the office is around two thirds to three quarters female.

This set me thinking about how it is accepted that women will have to queue for the toilet and men won't. Why is this? Wouldn't it be fairer if women's toilets in all public places had the same amount of cubicles as men's have urinals and cubicles in total, even if that means they take up a larger area? Why don't we at least design new buildings like this?

Or am I over thinking this? I am heavily pregnant and spend a lot of time queuing for the loo, so I might be

[3littlefrogs]

Meant to say that each cubicle contained a small basket on a shelf with wipes, sanitary protection, tissues - so very discreet.

[ALassUnparalleled]

Why do you think safety wouldn't be an issue at work, Lass? Genuine question btw

It''s a fair question. I meant that in an office where everyone knows each other it is unlikely that there will be a safety issue, but it's not impossible.

[ALassUnparalleled]

Oh and before someone decides to pick me up on attackers being known to women, there's a difference between a mixed work-place toilet during the working day and a public toilet late at night.

Other than the possible embarrassment factor I wouldn't have an issue with the former but a mixed toilet at say a railway station at night I would.

[DioneTheDiabolist]

TBF, women get pregnant, suffer post partum incontinence (sometimes for years), stress/age related incontinence and have more complicated biology and therefore faff and time involved.

The provision of female toilets was an issue for me & my friends in the 80s. It is much better now than it was, but old buildings can be a bit of a nightmare.

OP if you don't want to bring govt legislation/recommendations to your boss's notice, bring it to the attention of the other women where you work.

[ChunkyPickle]

If I think back to reports of men filming women in toilets, they're often work toilets.

I wonder if having the chance that he'd get a bloke on film would put off the kind of man who does that or not though.

[megletthesecond]

Me and the dc's had this discussion in the British museum yesterday. It's the third time we've been and the queues for the ladies are always horrendous .

DS was able to wander in and out of the blokes loos in a couple of minutes. Me and dd had to wait for 15. So I spent the queue telling dd she needs to be an architect when she grows up so she can design public buildings with far more ladies toilets.

I'm not sure the british museum even has an excuse, the new courtyard had a lot of thought put into it, except for the toilets which are cramped and hidden away.

[SeaRabbit]

Lack of women's looks in public places is one of my beefs too. Women take longer to go to the loo for all sorts of reasons, so I reckon we should have double the number that men have, and even more when children are likely to be present, since as I noticed at Wisley RHS garden the other week, it is more often women who take children to the loo.

[VestalVirgin]

In terms of acute problem solution ... how well do you get along with the male colleagues? Could you suggest to establish a rule where you knock at the door of the men's loo and they tell you to stay out if someone is using the urinal, and if it's empty you use one of the cubicles?

If only a quarter of the people there are male, the loo should be empty most of the time, so ...

As for safety being an issue at work, in the offices where I have worked I was alone with men frequently, so me using the men's toilet wouldn't have made much of a difference. (I also think that if you know all your coworkers there's a bit less risk because, well, they'd have a higher risk of being caught.)

[TheLynchpin]

My work has unisex loos.

A lot of people - mostly female employees - were initially not keen on the idea, but guess what? Everyone is mature enough to get on with it and there are no problems. You most certainly cannot look above or under any of the cubicles, and safety most definitely is not an issue.

What it means is that you don't get one lot of people queuing for loos when there are plenty of others free. Common sense surely?

[SeaForests]

Our work has unisex accessible loos as well - for some reason people find it quite disconcerting, but I now find the sex/disability divided loos peculiarly inefficient when I'm out and about.

[PassiveAgressiveQueen]

I would be happy for unisex loos,BUT they would have to have proper proper cubicles with roofs and reach the floor

[Pointlessfan]

I love going to the loo at football matches as there was always a massive queue for the gents and loads of empty cubicles in the ladies.
I work in a school with over 100 staff, probably75% women. There are 4 cubicles in the ladies and we all have to use them at the same time - our 20 min break. I don't know what the gents is like but this does seem ridiculous.
On the other hand I think it must be awkward for men weeing in front of other men e.g. their boss/colleagues/father in law etc so not sure they have it any better.
Lots of public loos have closed due to vandalism. This affects women and men, I think the problem is not enough loos in general.

[TheLynchpin]

@ Pointlessfan

Fully agree with everything said there. Personally I've no problems with the peeing in front of others in urinals, everyone just looks forward without averting their gaze anyway, but I know that some might have problems in this circumstance. A cubicle or two seems to sort the problem.

@PassiveAgressiveQueen

Yep, that's fair enough and I don't think it should be a difficult thing to implement when building or renovating toilets.