Saw this on FB yesterday
Public toilet, London, circa 1900.
February 11 is an important, if not very well known day in the history of women’s emancipation. For it was on this date in 1852 that the first public flushing toilet available to women was opened in Britain in 1852. The location was 51 Bedford Street, the Strand, London.
A year earlier, at the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace in London, the public flush toilet was first introduced. George Jennings, a Brighton plumber, installed water closets in the Retiring Rooms of The Crystal Palace. These caused great excitement and during the exhibition over 800,000 visitors paid one penny each to use them, thus introducing the phrase “to spend a penny”. For their penny, each visitor had access to a clean seat, a towel, a comb and even a shoe shine.
After the success of the lavatories at Crystal Palace, public toilets started to appear in the streets of London. The first one, for men, located at 95 Fleet Street, London, opened on February 2, 1852, with one for women opening a few days later, on February 11, at 51 Bedford Street, Strand, London. These “Public Waiting Rooms” contained water closets in wooden surrounds.
It took some years for the toilets to become universally popular. Thomas Crapper developed improvements to Jennings’ initial flushing mechanism, making it more functional and reliable. He also invented the ballcock mechanism.
Because the majority of public toilets in Britain and the United States were built for men, the Ladies Sanitary Association, formed in the 1850s, shortly after the creation of the first public flushing toilet, campaigned for clean and sanitary public and workplace toilets and changing rooms for women.
Until public lavatories for women were widespread, women who needed to travel from their homes had to plan their route to include places where they could relieve themselves. Women were unable to travel beyond where family and friends resided. This is often referred to as the “urinary leash”, as women could only travel far as their bladders would allow them.
We, of course, take women’s rest rooms for granted (except when we can't find one), but their development and implementation was an essential step in women’s equality and freedom.
Historical Photos of Women's Stories
https://www.facebook.com/111517533725893/posts/283743139836664/
It seems some people want to reinstate the urinary leash and stop women being able to access public facilities by making them mixed sex, so stopping any woman who can't use them due to religious or cultural reasons, due to trauma, or simply due to not wanting to have to share with men.
These women must have their lives and their ability to participate in society curtailed so that men can have all the choice.
No. I do not consent.