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Thinking of how successful unisex toilets in Australia are -- To those who oppose gender-neutral toilets: they’re better for everybody
"...It also requires public colleges to designate bathrooms "for use by individuals based on their biological sex.""
This article is more than 6 years old
Luc Bovens and Alexandru Marcoci
Our research into the economics of these facilities shows they cut waiting
for women, and address the concerns of trans and disabled people
Fri 1 Dec 2017 21.02 AEDT
First published on Fri 1 Dec 2017 20.00 AEDT
‘We used computer simulations to determine how men and women will be affected in both single-stall and multi-stall toilets.’ Photograph: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
Many more links
An increase in gender-neutral toilets is one of the aims of Sadiq Khan’s draft London Plan. It will address the concerns of transgender people who face intimidation and harassment in gender-segregated facilities when they are perceived by others to be in the “wrong” one.
There are detractors. Some object that gender-neutral toilets take away safe spaces for women. Andrea Williams, chief executive of Christian Concern, said in an interview with the London Evening Standard that the mayor’s proposal was “the latest casualty of an ideological tsunami that sweeps common sense and biological reality aside”.
The waters of this ideological debate are deep. But there is one advantage of a move away from segregated facilities that should appeal to all: it will reduce waiting times for women.
We are all too familiar with the long lines that form in front of women’s facilities in theatres or in any public places, while there is little pressure on the men’s. Women have for a long time demanded “potty parity” – that is, a set-up that equalises the average time men and women spend waiting to use the toilet. One way to do this is to install more facilities for women – as New York City and other municipalities in the US have done in the past few decades. But this is not straightforward in London. It requires changes in architecture, which are costly or even plain impossible in many of our listed buildings.
Trans people already face a hostile world. Now the media is making it worse Paris Lees
Read more > https://www.theguardian.com/global/commentisfree/2017/nov/17/trans-people-children-suicide-bullying-rightwing-media
But making existing WCs gender-neutral requires little more than changing the signs on the door. And it perfectly equalises the waiting times for men and women. In our research, we used computer simulations to determine how men and women will be affected in both single-stall and multi-stall toilets.
Suppose that we have a setup with one male and one female single-stall facility. The evidence is quite limited, but a study published in Psychological Reports in 2009 sets the average toilet occupancy time for men at roughly two minutes and for women at roughly three. Take a one-hour period. Suppose that there are 15 men and 15 women in the establishment who will hear the call of nature exactly once over this period at some random time. Then on average, men will be waiting to use the toilet for 40 seconds, and women for two minutes and 20 seconds. But if we make both stalls gender-neutral, then the average waiting time for every person (male or female) will go to one minute, which is a 20sec increase for men and a 1min 20sec decrease for women.
Suppose that we have a male and a female multi-stall toilet with six stalls each. We have 150 males and 150 females answering the call of nature over a one-hour period. Then the average waiting time for men is roughly 27sec and for women roughly 7min 40sec. This seems close to what we see in toilets in West End theatres. If we make them gender-neutral, then the average waiting time will go to 36 seconds – a small increase for men but a substantial decrease for women.
London needs more gender-neutral public toilets, says mayor's plan
Read more > https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/nov/28/london-needs-more-gender-neutral-public-toilets-says-mayors-plan
What about urinals, though? Suppose that the men’s toilet does not have six stalls, but, say, three stalls and three urinals. As we saw in the Barbican, where they made toilets gender-neutral, some women resist using facilities that have urinals. There are some architectural initiatives to place urinals behind privacy walls. But let’s keep things simple and assume minimal architectural changes. We can just take the urinals out before turning it into a gender-neutral toilet. Then there are fewer facilities and this adversely affects average waiting times. However, if we could fit one new stall where the three urinals used to be, then the average waiting time would go to roughly 3min. So, replacing urinals with fewer stalls is still a significant advantage to women but a somewhat larger imposition on men.
There is much to be said for gender-neutral toilets. They are a welcome move for trans people, and for disabled people who have carers of a different gender. But what has been forgotten in this debate is a much broader benefit for everyone: they reduce waiting times without having to incur any overhead costs. Granted, some people may feel uncomfortable in gender-neutral toilets – there are many reasons for this. But long waiting times are also seriously uncomfortable.
We should move forward slowly in this matter and not alienate anyone. To respect concerns about gender-neutral toilets, we can, in larger establishments, introduce them gradually, keeping a few segregated toilets intact. This way we get some of the gains of gender-neutral toilets while respecting the concerns of those who prefer to answer the call of nature with members of their own gender.
And as we move ahead, and enjoy the benefits this has to offer, we can carefully monitor whether there are any untoward incidents in the newly set-up gender-neutral toilets.
Luc Bovens is a professor in the department of philosophy, logic and scientific method at the London School of Economics
Alexandru Marcoci, is a fellow at the Department of Government at the LSE
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/01/gender-neutral-toilets-better-everybody-rage-latrine-trans-disabled
"...It also requires public colleges to designate bathrooms "for use by individuals based on their biological sex.""
This article is more than 6 years old
Luc Bovens and Alexandru Marcoci
Our research into the economics of these facilities shows they cut waiting
for women, and address the concerns of trans and disabled people
Fri 1 Dec 2017 21.02 AEDT
First published on Fri 1 Dec 2017 20.00 AEDT
‘We used computer simulations to determine how men and women will be affected in both single-stall and multi-stall toilets.’ Photograph: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
Many more links
An increase in gender-neutral toilets is one of the aims of Sadiq Khan’s draft London Plan. It will address the concerns of transgender people who face intimidation and harassment in gender-segregated facilities when they are perceived by others to be in the “wrong” one.
There are detractors. Some object that gender-neutral toilets take away safe spaces for women. Andrea Williams, chief executive of Christian Concern, said in an interview with the London Evening Standard that the mayor’s proposal was “the latest casualty of an ideological tsunami that sweeps common sense and biological reality aside”.
The waters of this ideological debate are deep. But there is one advantage of a move away from segregated facilities that should appeal to all: it will reduce waiting times for women.
We are all too familiar with the long lines that form in front of women’s facilities in theatres or in any public places, while there is little pressure on the men’s. Women have for a long time demanded “potty parity” – that is, a set-up that equalises the average time men and women spend waiting to use the toilet. One way to do this is to install more facilities for women – as New York City and other municipalities in the US have done in the past few decades. But this is not straightforward in London. It requires changes in architecture, which are costly or even plain impossible in many of our listed buildings.
Trans people already face a hostile world. Now the media is making it worse Paris Lees
Read more > https://www.theguardian.com/global/commentisfree/2017/nov/17/trans-people-children-suicide-bullying-rightwing-media
But making existing WCs gender-neutral requires little more than changing the signs on the door. And it perfectly equalises the waiting times for men and women. In our research, we used computer simulations to determine how men and women will be affected in both single-stall and multi-stall toilets.
Suppose that we have a setup with one male and one female single-stall facility. The evidence is quite limited, but a study published in Psychological Reports in 2009 sets the average toilet occupancy time for men at roughly two minutes and for women at roughly three. Take a one-hour period. Suppose that there are 15 men and 15 women in the establishment who will hear the call of nature exactly once over this period at some random time. Then on average, men will be waiting to use the toilet for 40 seconds, and women for two minutes and 20 seconds. But if we make both stalls gender-neutral, then the average waiting time for every person (male or female) will go to one minute, which is a 20sec increase for men and a 1min 20sec decrease for women.
Suppose that we have a male and a female multi-stall toilet with six stalls each. We have 150 males and 150 females answering the call of nature over a one-hour period. Then the average waiting time for men is roughly 27sec and for women roughly 7min 40sec. This seems close to what we see in toilets in West End theatres. If we make them gender-neutral, then the average waiting time will go to 36 seconds – a small increase for men but a substantial decrease for women.
London needs more gender-neutral public toilets, says mayor's plan
Read more > https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/nov/28/london-needs-more-gender-neutral-public-toilets-says-mayors-plan
What about urinals, though? Suppose that the men’s toilet does not have six stalls, but, say, three stalls and three urinals. As we saw in the Barbican, where they made toilets gender-neutral, some women resist using facilities that have urinals. There are some architectural initiatives to place urinals behind privacy walls. But let’s keep things simple and assume minimal architectural changes. We can just take the urinals out before turning it into a gender-neutral toilet. Then there are fewer facilities and this adversely affects average waiting times. However, if we could fit one new stall where the three urinals used to be, then the average waiting time would go to roughly 3min. So, replacing urinals with fewer stalls is still a significant advantage to women but a somewhat larger imposition on men.
There is much to be said for gender-neutral toilets. They are a welcome move for trans people, and for disabled people who have carers of a different gender. But what has been forgotten in this debate is a much broader benefit for everyone: they reduce waiting times without having to incur any overhead costs. Granted, some people may feel uncomfortable in gender-neutral toilets – there are many reasons for this. But long waiting times are also seriously uncomfortable.
We should move forward slowly in this matter and not alienate anyone. To respect concerns about gender-neutral toilets, we can, in larger establishments, introduce them gradually, keeping a few segregated toilets intact. This way we get some of the gains of gender-neutral toilets while respecting the concerns of those who prefer to answer the call of nature with members of their own gender.
And as we move ahead, and enjoy the benefits this has to offer, we can carefully monitor whether there are any untoward incidents in the newly set-up gender-neutral toilets.
Luc Bovens is a professor in the department of philosophy, logic and scientific method at the London School of Economics
Alexandru Marcoci, is a fellow at the Department of Government at the LSE
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/01/gender-neutral-toilets-better-everybody-rage-latrine-trans-disabled
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