Home Office women driven out of mixed lavatories

[yourhairiswinterfire]

Has this been posted? (Share token from Twitter)

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/home-office-women-driven-out-of-mixed-lavatories-qjclblb9f?shareToken=e977d37b828b65508de8b5e2d7864088

Women in the Home Office are having to visit other departments to use the toilet, because so many of the building’s facilities are unisex.

£40,000 was spent in 2018 to convert ten toilets into unisex facilities, without consultation.

Women were distressed by men leaving the doors open whilst using the toilet, and signs were put up asking men to close the doors.

“I have launched a review to establish the best way to deliver this as a priority and make sure that women can expect a sense of dignity, security and safety when using facilities,” Jenrick said in October. “We want to maintain safeguards that protect women and the proper provision of separate toilets.”

Launched a review??? Shouldnt have happened in the first place.

@Daughterofmabel

Launched a review??? Shouldnt have happened in the first place.

I know. If only they'd bothered asking in the first place, they'd have saved themselves a lot of time and money.

Jenrick is Housing Secretary though. They share a building with the Home Office, but loos are different

Oh sorry, Jenrick’s talking about loos nationally not just in his building! That makes more sense

Interestingly the comments are pretty unanimously critical of the imposition of mixed-sex loos.

launched a review to uncover the bleedin' obvious?

If women hate these toilets so much they they go to another building, what more does he need to know?

That's weird. This was flagged ages ago so I checked the date on the article. And it's recent.

So it's been a problem for ages but now it gets attention?

Neither men not women benefit from this.

Stupid decision to make the toilets 'gender neutral' but what the hell is wrong with the men who work at the Home Office that makes them incapable of closing the goddamn cubicle door when they piss?

Are they all perverts who want to force women to see them urinate, or so lazy they can't be bothered to close a door or forgetful to the point they can't retain the memory that it's a shared space????

Given that flashing is an offence, are the men who display their penis' to women in the workplace being fired for gross misconduct or reported to the police?

Given that flashing is an offence, are the men who display their penis' to women in the workplace being fired for gross misconduct or reported to the police?

This. Or issued formal warnings for intimidating workplace behaviour? I can see the argument that there's no flashing if they're facing forward in a cubicle (although I also know not all men stay facing forward while they put it away, so actually would flash when turning around).

I had this twice. Once with my young children when I took them to use the toilets at the railway station on the platform which had been changed from women to mixed and a man was in there with the cubicle door open.
I complained to staff and they said it happened all the time.
The other time was in the basement of a restaurant which had cubicles opening onto a corridor. I told the manager who was shocked but both times the men themselves when I challenged them didn’t see a problem. Pure male entitlement and also highly risky for flashing.

There is an excellent scene in Hidden Figures which shows Dorothy Johnson having to run in heels, in the rain to the black female toilets which is 2 miles away (NASA is huge!).

This meant she lost work time/productivity despite being a genius she couldn't work effectively.

Your boss would notice if you were never at your desk because you had to take time out to go for a wee.

I suspect this is how it came up rather than someone thinking about the comfort of women as only now they are going to investigate?

Even geniuses have to go for a wee during the working day.

I am so glad, when I submitted my evidence to the GEO that my parting shot was Whilst the GEO has trained itself to destruction and opened up Whitehall’s loos to all, equality has become worse.

This makes me so cross. It's not just the distress caused by being flashed, but the effects on the women who need to nip to the loo between back-to-back meetings (presumably now impossible due to time needed to either queue for the remaining toilet or leave the building) - IME most senior men and women spend most of their time scheduled back-to-back most days, or does the Home Office not have sufficient numbers of senior women that this causes a problem? What about those with urgent toileting needs (same issue with time taken)? What about the way a male manager might view a female team member who takes several 15 minute 'breaks' every day to leave the building and use the ladies, as opposed to her male colleague who just nips in and out as he pleases. Women will, objectively, get less work done and be viewed accordingly, or feel guilty and work longer/cut short lunch breaks; it builds up over time.

And, as with anything, I'm so cross we even have to give this headspace - why can't we just go to the loo in peace, comfort and with privacy and dignity like the men do?

Yep. The toilets at DEFRA are mixed sex and feel very unsafe. I hate the massive, heavy doors that go floor to ceiling. All I can think when using them is that if I was dragged in a cubicle there, nobody would be able to hear or help.

This is just bloody priceless 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

Heavy massive doors for DEFRA but just think of a shopping centre in an underprivileged area, nice and flimsy.

Anyone noticed how much coverage this (and all other GC stuff) is getting

I'm repeating this from previous threads but I think it bares repeating:

Back in the 00s my uni in France opened a new block with only mixed sex toilets. For the first few weeks I tried using them but the men in them always were subtly intimidating, nothing you could point a finger to, but purposefully standing too close or making you have to squeeze past to exit, just watching you.

By half term all the female students were running to the literature block women's loos between classes and the mixed sex toilets were a de facto male space. In the second term, a woman was assaulted in them, and the attitude was "well why didn't she go to the women's toilets?"

Yes I can well believe that, Molten.

Any bloke will tell you that when a man uses a cubicle to pee, he doesn’t close the door behind him.

Anyone responsible for toilet provision should be aware of this

I know. If only they'd bothered asking in the first place, they'd have saved themselves a lot of time and money.

I'd like to know what percentage of those women, if they had been asked before, would have said they would be fine with it, and then after actually having dealt with it are making the trips to queue up by the single sex loos...

Wasnt this reported a while back?

Good to see it mentioned again though. I used mixed sex toilets once in a restraunt and never again.

In the short time I was there taking the kids ( and at 14 and 10 I shouldn't bloody have to take them) twice men failed to lock the door resulting in someone else pushing the door open thinking it was a vacant cubicle.

At that point it didn't matter that they were actually design wise nice toilets. Clean. Nice soap. And lawful as mixed sex because they were fully enclosed. Because actually you were 2 flights if dark steps and an entire floor away from the main.restraunt and no one would ever hear you if u needed help.

Its bad enough as an adult opening the door to men right outside in the narrow gap between sets of cubicles. Would be dreadful fir young girls .

The men weren't even doing anything wrong. Just waiting where they shoukd he and/or using the loo. But it felt unsafe. And really limiting as there was no way I could let the.kids go by themselves. Something they would usually do

40,000 pounds of decoration for a certificate...Great use of money how many ramps would that have built?

It is a problem. A colleague of mine told me never to mention to her husband that there were mixed sexed toilets as he wouldn't allow her back if he ever found out (he's an Asian man in his 70s).

Obviously she uses the female only ones.

@OhHolyJesus

Umm slightly beside the point but The hidden figures toilet storyline was made up...

www.google.com/amp/s/www.vice.com/amp/en/article/d3xmja/oscar-nominated-hidden-figures-was-whitewashed-but-it-didnt-have-to-be

[quote Hazelnutlatteplease]@OhHolyJesus

Umm slightly beside the point but The hidden figures toilet storyline was made up...

www.google.com/amp/s/www.vice.com/amp/en/article/d3xmja/oscar-nominated-hidden-figures-was-whitewashed-but-it-didnt-have-to-be[/quote]
Ugh that's so annoying! Why do they have to do stuff like that? Minor storyline changes is one thing, but memorable scenes that end up being fabricated is really rubbish.