Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Africa Water & Sanitation & Hygiene Nov-Dec 2017 | Page 12

The tyranny of toilets - reflections on World Toilet Day
Submitted by Maitreyi Bordia Das
Students heads to a female only toilets in Maskoke Primely and Secondly School in Gode Town in Ethiopia. Credit: UNICEF Ethiopia
I
n the lead-in to World Toilet Day, we hear a great deal
about the role of toilets in sanitation and in better
health and human development outcomes. Toilets are
good development. Period. He argues that the origins of
sex segregated public toilets were deeply gendered to start
with. Yet segregated toilets are good in general, unless, in
Kogan’s words,
We hear less about the fact that toilets are often sites and
instruments of social exclusion. •

•
Let me explain.
Segregated toilets for males and females were intended
to give women privacy and to respect the “intrinsic”
physical differences between the sexes. In fact, in most
developing countries, segregated toilets are a sine qua non
for female participation in public spaces, in education and
in employment.
•
But the story is more complex.
While working on The Rising Tide, our “thinking device”
on water and gender, I came upon this fascinating piece by
Terry Kogan in the Michigan Journal of Gender and Law.
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Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • November - December 2017
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“you happen to be a wheelchair-user who needs
the assistance of your opposite-sex partner in a
public restroom facility.
you happen to be a transsexual person dressed in
accord with your gender identity who is prohibited
from using the workplace restroom designated for
the sex with which you identify.
you happen to be a woman at a rock concert
standing in a long line outside the restroom
marked ‘Women,’ while no line exists outside the
door marked ‘Men’.
you happen to be a parent tending an opposite-sex,
five year-old child when you or your child suddenly
needs a public restroom.