Do you know the difference between a restroom and a bathroom?
- Terminology can be very important, even for something everyday as a restroom. While 'bathroom' is the more commonly used term, a bathroom actually has a bath/tub in it! So when you're not at home, the more accurate term to use is 'restroom.'
Do you know when the first gender-segregated restrooms were established?
- In Paris in the 1700s! In the U.S., regulations requiring that men and women use separate restrooms didn't originate until the late 1800s (TIME Magazine).
If regulations for separate restrooms in the US didn't start until the late 1800s, did that mean men and women were using the same restrooms?
- No! Before public restrooms were gender-segregated in the U.S., public and private spaces in general were extremely gender-segregated as men were the primary occupants of the public sphere, while women had to stay home in the private/domestic sphere. Because of this, the only restrooms located in the public sphere were men's restrooms. Since women weren't allowed/encouraged to have jobs outside of the house, then there wasn't a point in there being public restrooms for them. At this time in the late 1800s, this segregation was also occurring in the U.K, and they used the term "urinary leash" to describe the constraints women were put under when it came to using the restroom on a daily basis. Because there were no public restrooms for women, if they decided to leave their homes, they had to restrict their movements and stay close to home or not be gone from their homes for too long. Otherwise, they would be stranded somewhere without an accessible restroom. Consequently, when women did decide to venture out, they often didn't eat or drink anything in order to avoid needing to use the restroom (Historic UK). This "urinary leash" only ended up supporting/perpetuating the domestic space as the only sphere women belonged in. However, as women entered the workforce due to industrialization and subsequent World Wars, it was necessary that public restrooms be implemented for women.
What about the establishment of gender-segregated restrooms on college and university settings?
- As you can imagine, since women weren't allowed to go or were discouraged from going to college/university up until the early to mid 1800s, there weren't any pubic restrooms for women on college/university campuses. Once women were no longer barred from receiving a higher education, though, women's restrooms, living spaces, and athletics facilities were soon constructed. However, their implementation remained unequal for several years as men outnumbered women in the higher education space (University of Utah). Nonetheless, in the 1980s, women began to make up a majority of undergraduate attendees (Best Colleges), causing the ratio of men's to women's restrooms to begin equaling out.
