Why Bathroom Equality is Important

Bathrooms and washrooms play such an important part in our daily lives, whether that is in the home or out in the public or even the workplace, washrooms play a significant part in this. Its why washroom equality is so important especially for the growing population and for young people in mind as well. Unfortunately, not everyone will have access to these, quite often washrooms in public spaces are normally the opposite, whether that is a lack of a clean space, access to period and incontinence products, bigger cubicles or disabled cubicles/toilets in general. This is why bathroom equality plays such a vital part because it ensures that everyone can access a washroom as efficiently as they need to.

There are going to be a few topics I will be delving into in this post as I go into a bit more detail on how this can affect the bathroom experience overall. I also will be mentioning about the neurodiverse experience when using bathrooms and how the overall experience can be improved with these minor steps to be put in place.

Period Equaltity:
I will be using the term "period equality" here rather than "period poverty". While I acknowledge and understand "period poverty" is a thing, I recently listened to a podcast on period equality and it was mentioned that a lot of people prefer to use period equality rather than poverty because they didn't feel comfortable with that term overall.

So what is period equality?

Period equality deals with everything menstrual cycle based. It's to do with how we can access period products freely but also so that they are more accessible for everyone to use. Did you know that a lot of women and girls especially in educational environments to the workplace don't have access to free period products. While this is a very sad fact, however many places have started to focus on period equality overall including having free help yourself dispensers because no one should really have to pay for a basic need overall alongside paying tax on these products too. A lot of places have started doing this which is much more beneficial and helpful for people to access because then they are not having to go without using sanitary products because they aren't able to access them.

Alongside the help yourself dispensers, the implement of starting to have more sustainable menstrual products is being quite popular, these include re-usable pads, menstrual cups to plastic free wrappers for these products. There are a lot more options out there than before but they need to be brought to the forefront more so more people can be aware.

Incontinence:

Incontinence affects nearly almost half of our growing population and the resources for supporting this are very low quite sadly. While Incontinence has no gender, affecting anyone, I want to male an emphasis on male Incontinence specifically those with Prostrate Cancer. A lot of the time in men's bathrooms there aren't enough Incontinence products like pads etc but also this can also be the dispenser bins to bin these products. It's why there's needs to be a bigger emphasis on this topic to raise awareness but also acceptance so men dont have to feel like they can't access products but can be accepted as well.

Neurodiveristy in bathrooms:

This is a topic that is quite close to me and isn't spoken of much sadly. Have you ever been in a public bathroom and the first thing that hits you, is the bright lighting, unpleasant smells, loud hand dryers, rough toilet paper texture. Now double that or maybe triple it and you got a similar experience like mine when entering a public bathroom. As a neurodiverse person the bathroom experience can often be very overwhelming, causing discomfort. One of my biggest pet peeves when using a bathroom is the overpowering noise of the hand dryer. Not only this but sometimes the LED lighting in toilets can be way too bright, and harsh on the eyes. For a long time growing up it was why I struggled trying to access public bathrooms opting for the one at home because just the thought of having to use the loud hand dryer would put me off. It's why I believe there should be more silent hand dryers, things to remove the unpleasant smells and regular cleaning and sanitisation which prevents the spread of contamination. By implementing these small things into bathrooms, the overall experience has improved vastly. It's just a case of places wanting to implement this change and be inclusive.

As I've gotten older and as a adult I've started to become more better but those thoughts sometimes can be too much but I have noticed some bathrooms including in my own workplace where I'm doing my internship have dimmer lighting which is much calmer alongside having more products that make the experience a much more pleasant one.

I'd love to see what other think on this topic and if you have anything else you'd love to mention or even any suggestions on how we can make bathrooms more inclusive.

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Comments

sinead276

What an insightful post @Amy22 and arguably a topic which isn't discussed nearly enough as it should given the bathroom is something we all use on the daily.

I think in terms of period equality, progress is slowly being made like you said with the rise of more free period products in public bathrooms and even things down to campaigns such as asking for a 'Package for Sandy' in Morrisons stores to ask for period products in a way where women feel more comfortable and less judged. But I do think more can be done overall with this topic - especially given the growing prices of sanitary products in shops.

Another issue surrouding bathrooms that has always annoyed me is ones with turnstiles where you may have to pay 20p/50p to use the bathroom. Whilst I can recognise that the money goes to the maintenance of the bathrooms etc., I have always thought that it can be quite restrictive of those who may be in a more urgent need of the toilet having to find an alternative or ask for a key to let them in. Especially as society grows more and more cashless and we don't always have spare change on us. Also for those who are in the poorer side of society, spending any money just to access a public bathroom can be a hard factor.

Whilst I'm not neurodivergent myself, your section on that has definitely opened my eyes to factors I wouldn't have thought about when I've been in the bathroom. So thank you for both educating me and opening the conversation in general to a topic a lot of us may subconsciously brush under the carpet

Amy22

sinead276 wrote: »

What an insightful post @Amy22 and arguably a topic which isn't discussed nearly enough as it should given the bathroom is something we all use on the daily.

I think in terms of period equality, progress is slowly being made like you said with the rise of more free period products in public bathrooms and even things down to campaigns such as asking for a 'Package for Sandy' in Morrisons stores to ask for period products in a way where women feel more comfortable and less judged. But I do think more can be done overall with this topic - especially given the growing prices of sanitary products in shops.

Another issue surrouding bathrooms that has always annoyed me is ones with turnstiles where you may have to pay 20p/50p to use the bathroom. Whilst I can recognise that the money goes to the maintenance of the bathrooms etc., I have always thought that it can be quite restrictive of those who may be in a more urgent need of the toilet having to find an alternative or ask for a key to let them in. Especially as society grows more and more cashless and we don't always have spare change on us. Also for those who are in the poorer side of society, spending any money just to access a public bathroom can be a hard factor.

Whilst I'm not neurodivergent myself, your section on that has definitely opened my eyes to factors I wouldn't have thought about when I've been in the bathroom. So thank you for both educating me and opening the conversation in general to a topic a lot of us may subconsciously brush under the carpet

Aw thank you so much for reading my mini article, I really appreciate your thoughts as well. You've raised some very good points actually in terms of some public toilets you literally have to pay to use them which is almost ridiculous if you ask me because toilets should be free to use. Also it's why the term "spend a penny" comes from because years ago you would literally have to insert a penny into the stall to use it.

Matthew_04

Wow that was really eye-opening, I hadn't ever thought about how overwhelming going to a public bathroom can be for neurodivergent people! This is such a well written article!

AnonymousToe

Yeah, public toilets are so overwhelming for me too. I think it’s mainly the hand dryers - and people trying to shout over them. I don’t even use them, I just dry my hands on my clothes 😂

Redemption

AnonymousToe wrote: »

Yeah, public toilets are so overwhelming for me too. I think it’s mainly the hand dryers - and people trying to shout over them. I don’t even use them, I just dry my hands on my clothes 😂

Dry your hands on your clothes lol, Im not sure why but I find funny lol

Amy22

Matthew_04 wrote: »

Wow that was really eye-opening, I hadn't ever thought about how overwhelming going to a public bathroom can be for neurodivergent people! This is such a well written article!

Thank you I just thought about it the other day and actually thought "you know what, someone needs to write about this". It's funny because the internship I am doing is working with a company that focuses on hygiene and washrooms.

Amy22

AnonymousToe wrote: »

Yeah, public toilets are so overwhelming for me too. I think it’s mainly the hand dryers - and people trying to shout over them. I don’t even use them, I just dry my hands on my clothes 😂

I totally get that because often toilets can be super overwhelming especially using the hand dryers. I never understood why they are so noisy, but then again it's probably to do with the fan and the high power of the dryer itself and its efficiency.