At a mall in Toronto, when it was built, in the hallway with one set of washrooms the men’s washrooms were first and the women’s were further down, so that every woman who went to the women’s had to walk past the opening for the men’s. Then, some men being what they are, incidents occurred, and the washrooms were closed temporarily and switched so that the urinals went down to the end. Then women did not have to walk past the men’s to get to the women’s.
I don’t care about the gender of people I share a washroom with. But it is just dishonest to pretend that, in public, there is no cause for women, generally, to want a washroom that doesn’t have any men in it. Oversimplifying the issue, in the context of historic and ongoing male violence against women is not really that helpful a pretense.
However, I do like to check what I am saying. It has been years since I was in there, so I had a look. Today, according to the map those are all “Shared Access All Gender Washrooms.” There are men’s and women’s washrooms elsewhere in the mall still. And I suspect that for many women, certainly women who have been victims of male violence, the Shared Access All Gender Washrooms are now the men’s and they are gonna have to head over to the food court to use the women’s.
It would be better if people were not so awful.
