Gender neutral toilets are designed to be used by everyone, regardless of their gender. They ensure a high level of privacy and comfort for users through floor-to-ceiling cubicles, often further insulated against noise.
Gender neutral toilets at work are usually designed as ‘superloos’ – self-contained cubicles where users can also access hand-washing and hand-drying facilities while the door remains locked.
Gender neutral toilets in schools often consist of floor-to-ceiling cubicles combined with open plan wash troughs to accommodate high footfall, with a layout that allows for supervision when necessary.
Not when it comes to the facility or what it contains, the difference is purely in the language that is used. In fact, local authorities, schools and commercial organisations use a variety of different terms that all essentially refer to the same facility:
- Gender neutral toilet
- Unisex toilet
- Gender neutral bathroom
- Gender neutral washroom
- All gender toilet
- All gender washroom
- Gender inclusive toilet
- Inclusive toilets
- Genderless toilet
- Unisex washroom
The term unisex is becoming less common nowadays because it reflects the idea that gender is binary (unisex is defined as for use by either men or women). Because not everyone identifies as one or the other, the term ‘gender-neutral’ has become more popular.
For this reason, we tend to use gender neutral washroom as a catch-all phrase and we expect to see the term ‘unisex’ fade from the common lexicon more quickly over time.
However, in this guide, you’ll find that we often interchange the terms unisex and gender neutral.
This is because they are the words that most people use when trying to educate themselves about the subject – and we want as many people to learn about it as possible.
In the industry we don’t tend to refer to commercial toilet and washroom facilities as bathrooms – gender neutral or otherwise. That’s because ‘bathroom’ refers to a domestic room that contains, well, a bath. And they are gender neutral by default.
However, we do understand that this is a term that is used quite often by people when searching for commercial facilities.
So, in case you came to this guide wondering about gender neutral bathrooms, you can relax knowing that all the information here is still relevant.
There is very little clear government guidance as to best practice when it comes to unisex toilet requirements. As a result, organisations, architects and specifiers tend to be left to their own devices.
This can lead to counterproductive results, with poorly thought through designs leading to increased waiting times or people feeling less comfortable about using the facilities.
To get the requirements right, there are three key questions that you must answer:
- How do you create gender-neutral facilities that are inclusive, private and safe?
- How can they benefit the organisation and its end-users?
- What are the key practical and legal considerations?
Big tech companies like Google and Facebook, banks including HSBC and Barclays, education settings like the University of Bristol and publicly funded services like the British Army and the BBC have all turned their toilets into gender neutral environments.
They’re Inclusive
The first reason why gender neutral toilets are becoming popular is the principle of inclusive design, which aims to remove the barriers that create undue effort and separation when designing premises. Inclusive design enables everyone to participate equally, confidently and independently in everyday activities.
Gender neutral accessible toilets are a great way of facilitating inclusive design, because they can be used by anyone, regardless of their gender or ability.
They Help Gender Equality
Making toilet design more inclusive makes things fairer for everyone, regardless of gender.
In traditional single-sex washroom designs, a Ghent University study has shown that women wait an average of six minutes to use the toilet. Men, on the other hand, wait 11 seconds.
However, in a gender neutral washroom which has had urinals removed (in line with the DfES 2007 guidance), everyone had an average wait of two minutes.
This study is reinforced by another paper from The University of North Carolina. Researchers found that for an environment with 30 occupants evenly divided between male and female, the waiting time for women is 2.5 times longer than men. And in a building with 300 occupants, the waiting time for women is nine times longer.
The study found that moving to a totally mixed-gender layout would lead to average waiting times for everyone of less than one minute for 30 occupants, and just 22 seconds for a building with 300. In both instances, men see only a very marginal increase in waiting time.
They save space
Depending on the number of occupants within the building, using gender neutral toilets can reduce the number of urinals required. That means more functional space within the building, as well as less cleaning and maintenance.
They’re Ready For The Future
Because it is impossible to determine the gender ratio of future building occupants, gender neutral toilets maintain a consistent level of equality regardless of how the building is used in the future.
The design or layout of gender-neutral/unisex toilets are not governed by any specific UK government legislation. However, depending on the purpose of the building where the toilets are set to be used, there are several pieces of legislation that must still be taken into account, as well as official guidance.
Unisex toilets at work: the legislation
When assessing the benefits of including unisex toilets in the workplace, you need to consider two key pieces of UK legislation that require employers to ensure that everyone is treated with the same level of consideration:
1. The 2010 Equality Act
The 2010 Equality Act defines nine “protected characteristics”, which are:
- Age
- Disability
- Marriage and civil partnership
- Pregnancy and maternity
- Race and ethnicity
- Religion or belief
- Sex
- Sexual orientation
- Gender reassignment
Under this act, you must apply the same balance to decisions around employing people who have moved to their preferred gender as you would to that of sex, disability, or any other protected characteristic.
Should any policy, practice or procedure particularly disadvantage someone who has undergone or intends to undergo gender reassignment, then you risk indirect discrimination, for which employers can be held responsible even if it is happening without their knowledge or approval.
2.The 2004 Gender Recognition Act
This legislation allows transgender people over the age of 18 to change their legal gender, giving them the right to obtain a new birth certificate and be recognised as their preferred gender in law for all purposes.
Taken together, the legal framework has a significant impact on toilet design and specification:
Because a trans person should be free to select the facilities appropriate to the gender in which they present, the inclusive benefits of gender-neutral toilets alleviate the risk of creating a barrier that may prevent anyone from being able to live according to their legal gender.
Regulations and approved code of practice
3. Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 Executive guidance
Most recently updated in 2013, this guidance covers a wide range of basic health, safety and welfare issues and is applicable to most workplaces.
This guidance includes regulations, such as dictating that “separate rooms containing conveniences are provided for men and women except where and so far as each convenience is in a separate room the door of which is capable of being secured from inside.”
This is accompanied by approved code of practice text, including stipulations that:
“Sufficient toilet and washing facilities should be provided to allow everyone at work to use them without unreasonable delay.”
And: “Facilities should be arranged to ensure adequate privacy for the user. In particular…each toilet should be in a separate room or cubicle, with a door that can be secured from the inside…”
Minimum numbers of facilities
According to the approved code of practice, providing separate male and female washrooms requires you to install a higher minimum number of facilities, due to the requirement for additional urinals for mens toilets.
Where an organisation employs 200 people evenly split between men and women, it would need a total of nine toilets and four urinals.
However, if we were to implement gender neutral washrooms, 9 toilets (and no urinals) are required.
As multiple studies have highlighted, installing gender-neutral toilets drastically reduces the time that women wait to use the facilities, while men see an increase in waiting times that can be measured in mere seconds.
As multiple studies have highlighted, installing gender-neutral toilets drastically reduces the time that women wait to use the facilities, while men see an increase in waiting times that can be measured in mere seconds.
Superloos align with the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 (updated in 2013) and provide an inclusive, comfortable and private toilet experience.
They offer maximum privacy for users of all genders and future proof against the unknown gender of occupants, making them perfect for commercial environments.
The issues highlighting why gender neutral toilets are important were outlined by Lauren Seagar-Smith, CEO of anti-bullying charity Kidscape:
“Under the Equality Act 2010, schools as public bodies have a legal duty to protect children from harassment. And opportunities for inclusive design such as gender-neutral facilities and individual cubicle privacy are important steps that schools can take to provide protection.”
Gender neutral washrooms are becoming an increasingly popular solution to bullying and vandalism in schools. They are open plan and require enclosed floor-to-ceiling cubicles, making it possible to install CCTV to help cut down on misbehaviour.
This can be reinforced by ensuring toilets are configured in small blocks, and locating them outside staff accommodation for increased supervision.
They Are an Inclusive Solution
Recognition of transgender men and women has increased significantly in recent years, especially amongst young people. And it is not a coincidence that the younger generation has become increasingly accepting of trans issues.
As a result, many institutions, businesses, schools and universities are looking to accommodate the transgender community in their buildings with gender neutral toilets.
By installing these facilities, schools are effectively eliminating a source of significant unease for transgender young people.
Gender Equality
The same arguments for implementing gender neutral facilities in the workplace also apply to schools. Studies have repeatedly shown that gender neutral toilets reduce the waiting time for women and girls while having minimal impact on boys.
The two key documents you need to follow for best practice when specifying school washroom and toilet facilities are:
British Standard 6465-1:2006+2009 – Sanitary Installations
This is the code of practice for the design of sanitary facilities and scales of provision of sanitary and associated appliances. Although it doesn’t provide advice on gender-neutral facilities specifically, it provides the technical detail around school washroom and toilet design, including things like the amount of fixtures you need to supply.
Standards for School Premises
Most recently updated in 2015, Advice for standards on school premises is an advisory document that is intended to give schools more flexibility around washroom design compared to its 2007 predecessor.
According to the 2015 DfE guidance, you should be incorporating the following factors into your specifications:
- Suitable changing rooms with showers must be provided for children aged 11 and over who participate in physical education.
- Handwashing facilities should be installed close to every toilet
- Toilet facilities should be well lit and ventilated
- They should be located in areas that are both easily for pupils to access and for staff to monitor, without diminishing the privacy of pupils
- Separate boys and girls toilet blocks must be available for all children over the age of eight, except for single cubicles which can be locked from the inside and are designed for the use of one person at a time
- With the exception of disabled toilets, student toilets and staff toilets should be kept separate
While there isn’t specific guidance regarding unisex toilets in primary schools, DfE guidance does state that in reception and nursery schools, toilets should be either adjacent or connected to the classroom. And there should be a washroom that can be easily accessed from lunch and break spaces.
In terms of gender neutral toilet design for secondary schools and universities, while there’s little official guidance on what approach to take, it doesn’t mean that effective solutions don’t exist.
We have helped countless schools and universities create inclusive, safe, and private gender neutral washrooms, such as the layout example below.
This design utilises an open-plan layout which reduces bottle necks at the entrance and enhances toilet-use efficiency, while also allowing for staff supervision when necessary.
The cubicles are full height (floor-to-ceiling) and require individual lighting and extraction. They can also have a small 10mm gap at the ceiling to assist with ventilation. This design delivers privacy for the occupant and provides a safe, secure and comfortable space.
By using full-height cubicles, CCTV can be installed outside of the cubicles –– to deter bullying and anti-social behaviour. And as per the Department of Education guidance, we also recommend wash troughs rather than wash hand basins as they can accommodate high levels of traffic, make general maintenance easier and reduce the risk of intentional flooding.
In this suggested design for education settings, we’ve included washtroughs, full height cubicles for maximum privacy, and an open plan layout.
Communal areas within the blocks should be easy to see without encroaching on privacy. This can be achieved by setting cubicle doors a minimum of 90 degrees from the circulation route within the facility.
Again, having floor-to-ceiling cubicles within a gender neutral washroom setting offers significantly more privacy when compared to single gender washrooms.
