Uncomfortable about unisex toilets at work

[Onlyinanemergency]

My workplace is moving to new premises and all the toilets are to be unisex. Apparently the bathrooms consist of several floor-to-ceiling cubicals opening out onto shared sinks. There is then a large window onto a public corridor so that the sink area can be seen from outside the bathroom. There are 3 of these bathrooms, one on each floor of the building, as well as 3 single disabled toilets. The architects have obviously put a lot of thought into creating toilets which are unisex but also fairly safe and private, yet I still feel really uncomfortable about the idea. Particularly about not being given a choice. Am I wrong?

Am I the only woman who has no problem with mixed sex toilets? I also wouldn't be bothered about sharing a hospital ward with men either.

That's cool. But having read other posts here, can you understand why some women don't feel the same as you?

On an old thread I saw a report showing that, in the US, Target's new inclusion policy resulted in a doubling of sexual offences - mainly vouyerism, including digital voyeurism. This is a problem with mixed sex spaces where people remove clothes that I'm not sure I've seen mentioned much on this thread. Thought it might be relevant.

Yes Rat us creating an imaginary problem, already explained cba to do it again

You're telling me no woman has ever flushed the loo before weeing
to mask the sound? You're telling me no woman has ever used
loo roll to disguise the noise of wee and poo hitting the pan?
You're telling me Japanese ladies toilets don't have a button for"pretend toilet flush" sounds so that other women can't
hear the sound of them weeing?

Nope, doesn't happen does it.

How will this be any better in a mixed use toilet?
So there are things you actively do in a toilet that you don't want other users knowing? But we come up with reasons when we don't have to, yet those reasons are not good enough.
Just to add in general, those mixed toilets in Seattle with urinals one side, won't prevent a wait for women in the stall side, as more women use stalls. Shewees are not massively popular yet.

Also I don't personally give a damn about mixed use per se, no one can embarrass me these days, far too old for that, but I can see this is the thin end. We agree willingly or not, and then the argument is "toilets are mixed, may as well make hospitals mixed sex, oh well hospitals are mixed" etc,etc. And soon women have nowhere at all to gather or be alone, without a man requiring entry too.
Just NO

flimsy partioned cubicles are horrible. I would be happy to see
them gone if replaced with the right sort of single rooms

Great but why does this mean we have to share, cant we just have decent sized single rooms? They have them in some places already, upper end places mostly.

How will this be any better in a mixed use toilet?

Because unisex toilets are small rooms with floor to ceiling walls and proper doors. In the ones I have been in you can't hear the person in the next room. And for the avoidance of doubt that is just a statement of fact. It does not mean I am campaigning for the abolition of single sex cubicles.

Single person cubicles off a corridor are less safe for women. No thanks.

We have different building regs where I live, so most public toilets are behind a single door from the public area (restaurant, bar, office etc), rather than the double doors most buildings in the UK have to have. I hate using the loo - any failure on the lock and the whole cafe can see me. Urgh

There's very different kinds of set up that can be called unisex / gender neutral though. I picked someone up from an airport recently and the loos were fab - large individual cubicles with mirrors, sinks and san pro bins. The V&A new members room has got an old fashioned design set of cubicles and shoved a gender neutral sign on the door. My experience so far is that it's the men who look most uncomfortable as there are no urinals so it feels like a ladies not a gents.

Of course if they complain they might get their very own loo ...

I hate using the loo - any failure on the lock and the whole cafe can see me. Urgh

I feel your pain! Doubly bad when you're in there with a toddler who only demonstrates his capability with locks when your knickers are round your ankles.

Single person cubicles off a corridor are less safe for women. No thanks

It depends on the layout of the building. The restaurant I mentioned in one of my posts opened on to an open plan part of the restaurant where there would always be someone around and customers are visible until they enter the individual locked room.

A loo I used yesterday had a door for both sexes leading to a hallway which then had closed doors leading to the segregated rooms. After you go through the first door from the public part you would not be visible to anyone apart from someone in the hallway. As it was there was a man in that part of it. That is a common layout. And again I am not advocating getting rid of single sex toilets but good design has a part to play.

Toddler, ok for you, but what about others who really won't be able to deal with it?

Pratchet, having completely disagreed with you over on that other thread, I now fully agree with you on this one! Who'd have thought?

More qualifications and hedging about and ifs and buts and depends. Maybe you didn't hear me say NO.

Maybe you didn't hear me say NO.

I for one heard you, but there's simply fuck all I can do about it. How about you address your "no" to the proprietors of the OP's office building; see how that works out for you. I imagine that, rightly or wrongly, they may be looking for more than just the one word...

I hear you. As mentioned I am not campaigning for unisex loos and I'm not a town planner, an architect or a builder so it isn't me you have to say no to you.

A well designed unisex layout may well be safer than poorly designed single sex. Individual locked rooms opening direct on to a station concourse are safer than single sex loos opening off a communal hallway.

When women say they would share hospital wards with men I can only assume they are not aware of the frequency with which staff remove men from women's rooms in hospitals and care homes. I would not know if my mum had not worked in one.

No means No

Most women know that people who refuse to take no for an answer are not safe to be around.

Good article about the problem for women with unisex toilets

manfridayuk.org/2018/04/27/the-problem-with-gender-neutral-toilets/

Of you want the music to stop you need to try and find the pianist. No sense demanding it of some woman in the street and then declaring her unsafe if, despite having no issue with the music herself, she has no bloody clue where the piano is!

If

Most women know that people who refuse to take no for an
answer are not safe to be around.

This.

I think deciding to put gender neutral toilets in schools is the absolute giddy limit, bonkers. Men really don't give a fuck about girls comfort or privacy.