Over a hundred years ago, women campaigned hard for sex-specific public toilets.
Powerful men pushed back, saying such novelties would enable women to be outside the home too much at the neglect of their families. When a ladies’ loo was finally constructed on Park Street in September of 1900, furious men aggressively worked to shut it down.
Women, they determined, neither needed nor deserved their own bathroom facilities.
It’s the same misogyny we are fighting today. Above is a picture of an “all gender” bathroom with open urinals in Federation Square in Melbourne.
If you don’t understand why it’s unacceptable to force women to share facilities with men exposing their privates, you’re operating from a place of extreme ignorance and privilege.
Kaeley Triller Harms is a guest columnist for Partners for Ethical Care. Contact Ms Harms via support@partnersforethicalcare.com.
Comments