In 2012, the 67th UN General Assembly decided to dedicate a World Toilet Day, which will be held every year on November 19. " Toilets are small but mighty ," reads the page of the international organization's website, which resonates this annual event with Sustainable Development Goal 6 : Ensure access to sustainably managed water and sanitation services for all by 2030.
This is of course a matter of the right to hygiene and, subsequently, the prevention of many health risks. But the UN is particularly interested in the issue of the status of girls and women at the heart of this World Day. But why is that ?
But why is there more waiting for women ?
At the gas station, at the cinema, in the company during the lunch break, we can observe a curious fact: there is a wait to access the women's toilets while the men's ones seem less frequented.
This is primarily due to a difference in the time spent in toilets : a recent study indicates that women spend 34% more time there than men ! The reason : the greater complexity of undressing women's clothes, the sitting position for urinating and the requirements related to menstruation lengthen the length of stay.
It should also be added that women are more prone than men to dysuria and constipation. Among the causes of these retention problems that can lead to moderate to severe gastroenterinal and kidney disorders, there are... Stereotypes ! In particular, those that oppose the natural functioning of the body and the imagery of femininity. Women (more than men) hide to go to the toilet.
We must also question the gendered layout of the toilets: women's toilets are made up of cubicles while men can use urinals. However, in terms of spatial occupancy, it takes 3 urinals to make a practice. So, there are indeed fewer places accessible to women to relieve themselves than there are for men. And we're not even talking about places that aren't designed for, but are actually used as such !
Three key needs: hygiene, privacy, security
But maybe we need to talk about it. Because the problem is massive, particularly in certain regions of the world where a large proportion of the population is forced to relieve themselves in the open air due to a lack of toilets. This is the case , for example, in India, the second most populous country in the world, where half of the population does not have access to toilets. And it's a gendered disaster: women fear sexual assault (in a country that officially has 110 rapes a day) when they relieve themselves in the open air. To protect themselves, many of them go without food and water.
Between those who are starving and/or dehydrated and those who develop sickly symptoms related to holding back, to which we can add those who delay changing their sanitary protection, we are beginning to understand that this story of World Toilet Day is not a Rabelaisian joke, but represents a huge issue of safety and health for women. And as a result, the lack of toilets can be a clear obstacle to their empowerment.
The sociologist Julien Darmon, author of an essay on urban amenities, argues that the fight against gaps in access to sanitary facilities is perfectly strategic. According to him, all the inequalities in the world, including of course gender inequalities, are revealed by this issue : " Worrying about public toilets is like worrying about the world ," he says.
And to defend a new approach to toilets that responds less to the separation of spaces between women and men and more to the right of all to hygiene, privacy and safety.
The future is diversity... Toilets, too !
Under these conditions, the future would be more mixed toilets, with equivalent care given to ergonomics, cleanliness and respect for modesty.
Men agree, with more and more people expressing embarrassment about sharing their needs with others in open urinals, and fewer and fewer advocating for sitting pee (which is also said to have the benefit of preventing a number of urological diseases). In Germany, it has even become a majority cultural practice, and it is becoming so in Sweden and Denmark.
And in our companies, where do we stand with these small-corner issues? We may remember the passage in Lean in !, Sheryl Sandberg's book on women's leadership, in which she expresses her surprise when she discovers that on the management floor, there is no toilet for women. The implication is that nothing has been provided for the event that women reach the highest positions. But there's no guarantee that the toilet Sheryl found down the hall isn't mixed and not "just for men " as she assumes.
Because many companies today, especially those that have been created since the beginning of the twenty-first century, opt for the gender-neutral toilet solution.
A rather clever option, which makes it possible to rationalize the available space by offering everyone better reception conditions in the toilets. The icing on the cake : mixed toilets are better treated by their users in practice. In companies, in public places, in schools, it turns out that they stay clean longer and that they are less degraded.
How can this be explained ? Probably by a nudge effect : if you know that people of a different gender will use the same toilet as you, you are more attentive to the image that the state in which you leave the place will reflect of your sex... Something to think about.
