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Why Feminist Principles Belong in Public Toilet Design

Sonal Mithal and Priyanka Awatramani’s book excerpt argues that public toilets should be designed and managed with gender inclusion, privacy, disability, and care needs in mind.

By Bettesworth Construction Team 4 min read

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Public toilets should be designed and managed for the people who use them—not around the assumption that every user fits a male/female binary or has the same needs for privacy, mobility, and care. That is the central argument in Incloosive: Feminist Toilet Architecture, by Sonal Mithal and Priyanka Awatramani, published by CEPT University Press. Scroll.in published an excerpt on 10 March 2025, presenting the authors’ case for treating inclusion and safety as core design questions.

What does feminist toilet design mean?

In this context, feminism is a design principle: ask whose needs are built into a public facility, whose are overlooked, and how layout and management affect people’s ability to use it. The excerpt frames public restrooms as spaces shaped by assumptions about gender, privacy, safety, disability, and participation in public life.

That framing extends beyond the choice between men’s and women’s rooms. It asks whether users can enter without being challenged, use a private space, move through the facility, and meet care needs. It also recognises that a design decision can affect groups differently, even when a facility is nominally open to everyone.

Why question the male/female restroom binary?

When a building offers only men’s and women’s facilities, it makes a binary assumption about who will use them. The excerpt asks a practical question about the people left out: “Which toilet do they use?” For nonbinary and gender-nonconforming people, choosing a gendered room can expose them to scrutiny or harassment, while the absence of another usable option can make access difficult.

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The authors discuss inclusive, multiuser facilities as one possible response. The point is not that a single configuration suits every building or resolves every safety concern. Rather, the design should not make access depend on a user fitting an assumed gender category.

Safety depends on more than the room label

The excerpt challenges the claim that sex-segregated and enclosed restrooms necessarily prevent gender-specific violence. It says there is no evidence for the “bathroom predator” claim about transgender access, and describes transgender and gender-nonconforming people as vulnerable to harassment. Those are claims presented by the excerpt; this article does not independently assess the underlying studies it references.

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For construction and facilities teams, the useful implication is to treat safety as a question of the whole environment and its operation, rather than assuming that a gender label alone provides protection. The excerpt does not offer comparative outcome data showing that one toilet configuration is safest in every setting.

What design and management need to consider

The excerpt places gender inclusion alongside privacy, disability access, and care needs. These considerations are connected: a facility that is easy for one user to enter may still be unusable for someone who needs assistance, room to manoeuvre, or a private place to attend to a care task.

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  • Access: Consider whether the available facilities leave users with no comfortable or practical option because of gender assumptions.
  • Privacy: Examine what users can see and hear, and whether the arrangement provides the privacy people need.
  • Disability: Account for disabled users’ access and use, rather than treating inclusion as a question of gender alone.
  • Care: Consider the needs of people attending to personal or caregiving tasks, and whether the facility supports them.
  • Management: Include operational practice in the design question; the excerpt argues for inclusive design and management, not architecture alone.

The excerpt does not supply measurements or comparative results for these criteria. They are questions to use when evaluating a project, not a claim that one layout has been proven superior on every axis.

Indian examples discussed in the excerpt

The excerpt points to several Indian institutions and public initiatives to show that inclusive restroom design has been discussed and attempted in different settings. These are examples reported by the authors, not independently verified statements of current provision or policy status.

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  • It reports that the Supreme Court of India made a statement on 12 April 2023 concerning nine universal restrooms in its main and additional buildings, in the context of inclusive infrastructure and sexuality sensitisation.
  • It says the Delhi government mandated separate and exclusive restrooms for transgender persons in 2021.
  • It names gender-neutral toilet examples at Nalsar Law School in Hyderabad, Aarey in Mumbai, Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai, and IIT Delhi.
  • It describes the Aspirational Public Toilets scheme as launched in September 2022 and lists features associated with Pink Toilets, including sanitary napkin vending machines, incinerators, breastfeeding areas, changing or bathing rooms, and seating or resting spaces.

These examples illustrate the range of design and policy questions raised in the excerpt. They do not establish how many facilities are currently operating, how consistently they are maintained, or what outcomes they produce.

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What the book excerpt does—and does not—establish

Incloosive: Feminist Toilet Architecture offers an argument for making feminist principles integral to public toilet design and management, with examples from India. Scroll.in’s 10 March 2025 article identifies itself as an excerpt from the book. It is therefore useful as a presentation of the authors’ position, but it is not, by itself, a comparative evaluation of toilet designs or an independent verification of every policy and institutional example it mentions.

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For a construction decision, the excerpt’s strongest contribution is the set of questions it makes hard to ignore: who can use the facility comfortably, what privacy it affords, whether disability and care needs are accommodated, and how operation affects safety and access. It does not identify a universally best configuration or provide performance data for choosing among alternatives.

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