When Caroline Criado Perez published her fantastic book, Invisible Women, back in 2019, one of the most surprising talking points in it was an examination of toilets.

Criado Perez reported that men’s and women’s public toilets have traditionally been designed using the same amounts of space. However – thanks to factors such as periods, having to use a toilet instead of a urinal, pregnancy and being accompanied by children – women typically take up to 2.3 times as long as men to use the toilet. No wonder 59% of women say they regularly have to stand in line for the loo, compared with 11% of men.

It’s proof that we still very much live in a world designed for men – women’s needs and the space needed continue to be ignored in the design of public toilets. And radio host Emma Barnett just illustrated this perfectly…

Emma Barnett just sparked a very important debate about toilets