Do folks think all bathrooms should be de-gendered?

[laundry_queen]

64. I agree

We are trying this little experiment at my workplace right now and it is failing big time (although it's not some grand social experiment, my company is just to cheap to supply the minimum amount of restrooms they should be supplying according to labor laws, but I digress...)

There are a bunch of us that share 1 bathroom - women outnumber the men 3 to 1.

I say until all other things in society are equal - where men grow up valuing learning to clean up after themselves and not having females in their lives do it for them - I prefer the separate bathrooms. While many of the men are just fine, a majority still refuse to clean up after themselves despite meetings, warnings and signs in the bathrooms about cleanliness. There is constantly feces inside the bowl, urine all over the seat, even liquid feces all over the seat, pubes on all over the seat, water splashed everywhere. We are a smaller office so we know who the culprits are so we know it's several of the men and none of the women.

Don't get me wrong - women can sometimes be gross to but the order of magnitude does not compare. The women often talk of having to clean the bathroom before we can even 'go'. This is an office full of professionals with degrees. None of us women want to be having to clean up after the men and many of us see it as a sexist issue.

And then there is the time spent in the bathroom - when men go in to 'read a magazine' they will take up to 30 minutes. We have 1 bathroom and often some of us women will get tired of waiting and will run to the restaurant next door to use their facilities (they allow us because we spend a ton of money at lunchtimes, lol). Even though the women vastly outnumber the men, it's the men that seem to have a monopoly on bathroom time. It's like there is no consideration for the rest of us that are waiting. Although, I do know this is because we just simply do not have enough bathrooms for the number of employees, more gender-neutral bathrooms would solve this issue, so this is more of a lack of bathroom issue, maybe not as much of a gender issue, but I could get into my thoughts on how the men act how they are entitled to bathroom time, whereas the women are constantly trying to hurry through it, apologizing to anyone waiting. Bathroom & gender dynamics at my workplace are pretty fascinating, lol.

Of course, this is just my small set of experiences. For instance, I know the males in my immediate family would be absolutely disgusted with the behavior of the males at my workplace and would never leave a restroom in such a condition - but unfortunately many men are not like that (in my family, the men clean the home as much as the women, there is no gender split there. In my ex-husband's family, the men never did any cleaning at all. Let's just say it was an issue in our marriage for certain, and I don't think his family is an anomaly). But I can see it now - I mean, the men in my office still refuse to clean up after themselves even when it's obvious who is making the messes, can you imagine the messes if they were completely anonymous? My ex did tell me horror stories about the state of many men's public restrooms. Not sure I'm ready for that....

Perhaps the solution is 3 bathrooms, men, women and gender-free. Or just a bunch of single, separate bathrooms instead of a large room with stalls.