A desperate need for all-stall washrooms

Concert venue made us encroach on the men, says Suzanne Westover.

One recent evening, I was surrounded by women. Thousands of screaming, waving, excited women in various states of sobriety. It was the first time Céline Dion had set foot to perform in the nation’s capital in more than a decade, and my contemporaries were out in full force.

The women-to-men ratio probably hovered around eight to one. But what struck me as odd, from the moment we walked into the Canadian Tire Centre (in search of a washroom) until we left our seats after the incredible show (also in search of a washroom) was the rigidity of the washroom layout.

Having 50 per cent of the venue’s bathrooms dedicated to about 10 per cent of the guests in attendance doesn’t make much sense. On the first go-round, my friend and I waited dutifully in a line with other equally pained women, while the odd man in attendance sailed in and out of the bathroom next door, indifferent to our plight.

By the time Céline finished belting her encore, it wasn’t my heart going on that I was worried about; it was that other less romantic organ that tends to prolapse in women of child-bearing years. My friend and I raced around the concourse in a senseless hunt for the elusive unicorn: an empty female washroom. Of course, that quest proved fruitless, and we careened around corners in a state of mounting desperation.

“We cannot leave here without using a washroom,” exclaimed my friend. “Do you know how long we’ll be stuck in the parking lot? I will never make it home.”

In a moment of panic, we girded our loins and peered around the corner of an almost empty men’s washroom. Studiously averting our eyes from the two gentlemen at the row of urinals, who turned in surprise at the sound of heeled boots, we ran past and hurled ourselves into a blessedly empty stall. Emboldened by our breach of etiquette, we were followed by a tidal wave of women seeking nothing more than their fair share.

It begs the question: In 2019, where is the bathroom equity?

It seems so silly that we don’t build all washrooms to be “stall only,” so that public bathrooms can be assigned to whatever gender makes the most statistical sense. If you’re expecting 15,000 women and 3,000 men, it would be so easy to flip the signs accordingly. Many argue for gender-neutral bathrooms for this same reason. But since everyone has a different comfort level around that, perhaps we could take a small step in the right direction and accord washrooms at venues based on demographics, equity, rather than a false sense of equality.

Taking the stall principle of women’s bathrooms across the board might cost a bit more in the way of real estate, but for the 51 per cent of the population who’ve been given the short shrift for too long, the change would come as a welcome relief.

We apologized loudly and profusely to the hapless men we barged in on in the name of desperation. But we left that bathroom feeling strong, powerful and free.

Maybe a little bit of Céline Dion’s indomitable courage had rubbed off.