I found an academic blog about the history of women's public toilets and the 'urinary leash'

[BadSkiingMum]

By sheer chance I happened to find an academic blog about the history of women's public toilets and the impact of the urinary leash. I was searching for something using the words 'women owned logo' (which is a business promotion scheme in the USA) and my finger slipped off the 'g', leaving me with a search for 'women owned loo'!

It's an interesting blog and what stood out to me is that the big London department stores only introduced women's toilets for commercial reasons, as they realised that it would help women to spend more money. Perhaps there is a lesson in that for the issues of today? I remember that in America they had the 19th century women's 'Rest Rooms' movement in big cities. I think those facilities were more similar to waiting rooms, in that they had a sitting area as well as the toilets, but anyone who has been to a hotel built in that era knows that ladies loos often have a sitting area as well as the toilet facilities. So there was a understanding of the privacy/safety need, as well as hygiene.

Women’s rights and the “loo leash”: the fight for public toilets in the UK | Water, Sanitation and Health (WASH) Blog

Thank you to the author for putting this article out there.

Thanks for the link OP. It was a very interesting read.

What happened to women in the UK until safe public toilets were built is what's happening to women in the third world today. Charities will argue/lobby for women in developing countries to have safe and hygienic single-sex toilet provision but at the same time argue that women in countries like the UK don't merit the same basic consideration.

Bonkers.

I was reading a history of New York (random I know!) and the same happened there. in the form of Macy's in 1858.

Socialising was done by visiting each other at home. Women did not really go out around the city much as the streets were dangerous and hotels were for the wrong sort of women.

Macy's opened in 1858 and became a public space (probably the first public space) that women could go to alone, hang about, meet friends, and yes, go to the bloody loo!

It is quite disturbing to realize just how new all of our female freedoms are.

I do think we need to teach this kind of thing in school. People start to believe that all of these freedoms are a natural consequence of modernity but - they are not. Every one of them was fought for and the opposition put up a bloody good fight.

The women of Afghanistan would have an interesting thing or three to say about losing rights.

In the scale of history, this time and these freedoms are a blip and only a fool would consider them permanent.

EDIT for spelling.

Great blog, thanks BadSkiing. When I was a kid our local posh department store had a great space in the ladies with lovely sofas, big mirrors and small tables. Just wonderful for rest and a gossip after traipsing round the shops - though tbf groups of 14 yo girls were probably not their target market.

Yes, I like the idea of the female-only sitting space, presumably to offer additional privacy and protection against sexual harassment.

In Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina there’s a reference to her going into the ‘First Class ladies waiting room’ at a station. Although obviously it might be different in the original Russian.

On a related note, the concept of the ‘companion’ or chaperone is quite an interesting one. A 19th century woman could, with another woman in tow, access some of those male freedoms. The way the world is going I think we will very soon see that idea making a comeback…