Who would (not) use all-gender toilets… and why? A study on university students in Taiwan

Abstract

The installation of—and the debates surrounding—all-gender toilets (AGTs) are growing worldwide, but few empirical studies exist regarding the attitudes and behaviors of prospective AGT users. This paper fills the research gap by using a multi-methods approach to investigate how prospective users perceive and use AGTs at National Sun Yat-sen University in Taiwan. Through a survey of 729 university students and a two-week-long on-site observation, the study provides substantive evidence regarding AGTs users. The survey shows that the majority of both male and female respondents endorsed and would actually use AGTs. The presumed opposition to AGTs by mainstream users might have been overestimated. On average, only 9.23% of the respondents disagreed with the installation of AGTs, and only 7.37% never used the AGT next to their classroom. Female students were less likely to endorse and to use AGTs, and were more concerned about privacy, safety and hygiene issues in AGTs. On the other hand, some women would endorse the installation of AGTs even if they don’t personally use them. Societies may be able to accommodate these diverse users by allowing for the coexistence of all-gender and gender-segregated toilets. This research contributes to existing gender and toilet literature by providing a cross-examined assessment of prospective respondents’ attitudes and behaviors vis-à-vis the AGTs in an actual AGT setting instead of a hypothetical scenario. We encourage future research to target a more diversified pool of respondents to explore the myriad factors associated with mainstream users’ attitudes toward and use of AGTs.

Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2021.1987198 .

Keywords:

• All-gender toilet
• gender-neutral toilet
• gendered space
• transgender
• unisex toilet

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Prof. Herng-Dar Bih for his generous suggestions and encouragement in the initial development of the research. We also express our gratitude to the colleagues at National Sun Yat-sen Universities who granted us permission to conduct surveys in their classes. Special thanks to the valuable and effective support from our research assistants—Wei-Cheng Chen, Lei-Jung Fan, Yan-Ting Hou, Yu-Chun Yang, Wan-Ting Chiang, Ching-Chu Yu, Yun-Chuan Huang, Tzu-Yin Chen, Ming-Chyi Chao and Yi-Chin Lin—in conducting observation and distributing and collecting questionnaires. This research would not have been possible without their efforts. Finally we thank the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan (ROC) for funding this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan.

Notes on contributors

Yen-Wen Peng

Yen-Wen Peng is Professor and Chair of the Institute of Public Affairs Management at National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan. Her research interests include women’s movements, gender politics, gender and management, urban and community development as well as collaborative governance.

Wei-Ning Wu

Wei-Ning Wu is Associate Professor at the Institute of Public Affairs Management at National Sun Yat-sen University. His research interests lie in the areas of public management, with an emphasis on service evaluation, risk and emergency management, citizen participation, and interorganizational collaboration.