Kathryn Anthony, University of Illinois – Potty Parity
One way to see gender discrimination in action is to look at the lines in public restrooms.
Kathryn Anthony, professor in the school of architecture at the University of Illinois, explores what can be done about it.
Professor Anthony teaches, conducts research, and writes about how spaces and places affect people. Her expertise focuses on such topics as social and behavioral factors in design, gender and race in contemporary architecture, and entrepreneurship in design. She has also developed a new seminar on architecture, cinema, environment, and behavior.
Her research has spawned award-winning books, Design Juries on Trial: The Renaissance of the Design Studio and Designing for Diversity: Gender, Race, and Ethnicity in the Architectural Profession.
Professor Anthony’s latest book is Defined by Design: The Surprising Power of Hidden Gender, Age, and Body Bias in Everyday Products and Places. It demonstrates how design shapes our lives in ways most of us would never imagine–affecting our comfort, our self-image, and even our health.
Another recent book, Shedding New Light on Art Museum Additions: Front Stage and Back Stage Experiences, co-authored with Altaf Engineer was also published in 2017.
Potty Parity
Have you ever had to wait in line to use a public restroom? What’s the longest line you ever waited in? Where was it? Who was with you? And how long was the wait? Chances are if you’re a female, it’s happened to you a lot. Less so if you’re a male. Especially at stadiums, theaters, concert halls, and airports, anywhere crowds gather, men zip in and out in a flash, while women are forced to wait in line.
Why? Most public restrooms have fewer fixtures for women. This discrepancy is a subtle but powerful form of gender discrimination. Due to our physiological differences, females take longer than males. Women need to disrobe, store a purse, sit down, use toilet paper, and then put our clothes back on. Women who are menstruating, pregnant or carrying babies or toddlers take even longer. Males have it much easier!
Holding it in can lead to urinary tract infections and other health problems. In many of our nation’s schools, and in parts of the world where restrooms are in deplorable condition or missing altogether, millions of women and girls are in danger. Until relatively recently, most architects, contractors, engineers, building-code officials and clients were not concerned about this issue. The movement to remedy this situation is known as “potty parity”.
The goal is equal speed of access, usually more toilets for women. We’ve seen progress with updated building codes and potty parity laws requiring improved fixture ratios. Even better, unisex restrooms eliminate the gender discrepancy altogether. Yet these changes only affect new and newly remodeled buildings. Most of our existing building stock remains untouched. So we’ve still got a long ways to go. Think about it the next time you’re stuck waiting in line at the restroom–or waiting for the women in your life.
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Professor Anthony – makes valid and relevant points. The process of “relieving” oneself should not be discomforting or unhealthy. Sadly, many individuals may be too embarrassed to openly discuss this issue. Using public facilities is a functional and human action, and it only makes sense to examine this issue honestly instead of economically or with outdated thinking. It is time to rethink, redesign, and refurbish these public spaces.
As the public interest law professor whom the media has dubbed “The Father of Potty Parity,” who forced a major university to provide more restrooms facilities for females, and triggered the construction of a female restroom adjacent to the floor of the House of Representatives (just like the one for male legislators), let me explain that women can do more than just think about the problem while waiting on a long line to use the restroom.
Requiring females to habitually wait on much longer restroom lines than males does indeed constitute illegal sex discrimination in violation not only of federal and state anti-discrimination laws but also the U.S. Constitution (if it’s a public university or other facility). There is now legal precedent to back up this premise which I first published years ago.
So, instead of simply hoping for or even just writing about the need for potty parity [a/k/a/ squatter’s rights, restroom equity, porcelain proportionality, etc.], females in higher education and their male allies can help trigger much needed change by bringing (or even just threatening to bring) law suits or administrative complaints based upon growing legal precedents.
For more information about the law in this area, and a copy of a complaint which forced a major university to provide more toilet facilities for females, see: POTTY PARITY, RESTROOM EQUITY, SQUATTERS RIGHTS https://bit.ly/2bmFQfJ
Also, contrary to the suggestion in the audio recording, there is a very simple way to add lots of all-gender restrooms to existing (even very old) buildings. The George Washington University Law School pioneered this technique, and now Yale Law is doing the same.
SEE PICTURES AT Could Male, Female Restrooms Be a Thing of the Past? GWU Tries Out ‘All-Gender’ Restroom https://bit.ly/2XMwHTr
SEE Also ‘Potty Parity’: Yale Law Converts Two Restrooms to ‘All-Gender’ for LGBT Students https://bit.ly/2JAwv63
PUBLIC INTEREST LAW PROFESSOR JOHN BANZHAF