I Must Confess: I’m not a fan of unisex toilets.
In theory, it sounds great! We’ve all been to many a function or restaurant only to find a queue for the female facilities, while the men’s room remained vacant. Unisex toilets would minimise the “queue for the loo”!
In practice, I’m not keen.
Unisex Toilets for Staff
Does anybody remember when they had unisex toilets for the staff in the TV show Ally McBeal? I thought it was gross …
Then came my own first encounter with unisex toilets for staff, when I worked in a library about ten years ago.
I’m not sure why only one staff bathroom was created in a building that was less than 20 years old – surely, being a comparatively recent construction, the designers weren’t thinking that only women work in libraries?
Although it is true that the majority of the staff were indeed female, there were always at least two or three men.
I felt rather uncomfortable with the concept … but eventually noticed that despite the fact it was a “unisex” staff toilet, ALL of the males preferred to use the men’s facilities on another floor of the building, or even the public facilities outside the library itself!
Unisex Public Toilets?
Recently I went to a function held at a pub and once again encountered unisex toilets. Protecting myself by wrapping my hand in toilet paper, I gingerly placed the toilet seat down. Not nice!
Am I old-fashioned in my dislike? Some things I feel are best kept separate.
And besides, how can you have a good gossip with your girlfriends, or fix up your makeup, when there is a man in the bathroom?!
What are your thoughts of unisex toilets – love them, hate them, couldn’t care less?
It would be handy for having male children who hate me taking them into the ladies toilets! But otherwise no, I wouldn’t be comfortable. Especially not in a work environment. That’s just nuts.
True! Didn’t think of that!
I’m with you, especially as a mum with young kids! It’s a stereotype but usually females are a bit cleaner in the loo so often women’s loo are a tad nicer. I avoid all public toilets like the plague anyhow!!
I have the world’s worst bladder so unfortunately avoidance is not an option for me 🙁
I’m not a fan of public toilets and honestly do not get the unisex toilet thing.
I think is depends how desperate you are and what the options are. I seem to be seeing more unisex toilets when travelling. I love the auto flush many USA toilet have as it saves me having to do the foot flush. Never use my fingers to flush. Never open the doors with them either. Always use pieces of paper. On planes toilet are unisex and I never visit without proper shoes because of liquids on the floor. I wish people would learn how to pull the plug to clear the basin of water. Seems I have to do this every time I visit a loo on the plane. I’m concerned that one day I will walk out of those totally self cleaning ones looking like I got a bucket of water over my head. I could go on but need to move on to another blog. Fran
Because I have the world’s worst bladder, sadly I am often desperate 🙁
I’ve had friends who have been cleaners of nightclubs or places after a big event and the worst toilet was always the female toilet. Seriously girls are gross. I remember going out a couple of years ago and a bunch of girls had smashed glasses into the toilets and left used sanitary items on the floor. So..I’m not a fan of unisex..only because I want the poor blokes to keep up the thought that women are dainty and clean when they use the loo!
Ewww that’s disgusting Tegan. How can people be so gross?!
I can’t say I’ve encountered too many unisex toilets or given the concept much thought. They would be great if everyone took care and looked after their waste, etc, but that’s not always the case, whatever sex… Having to clean both male and female toilets and change rooms in a truck stop many moons ago, I can’t say many positives for either gender!
As long as the men close the door in their toilet cubicle and don’t pee all over the floor, it doesn’t really bother me. The one downside is that the female of the species do tend to congregate in the toilets to gossip and beautify, so I suppose it could be an invasion of privacy from that point of view.