Women's rights activists alarmed: Engineers' association recommends unisex toilets

In order to meet people of different genders without discrimination, the engineering association recommends unisex toilets.

Women's rights activists alarmed: Engineers' association recommends unisex toilets

In order to meet people of different genders without discrimination, the engineering association recommends unisex toilets. These should consist of a common anteroom with individual cabins. However, women's rights activists warn against "misunderstood anti-discrimination".

According to a media report, the Association of German Engineers (VDI) recommends the creation of unisex toilets in the discussion about an additional toilet for the so-called third gender. This emerges from a revised sanitary room guideline of the VDI, reported the "Bild" newspaper. In it, the association proposes a unisex anteroom in order to deal with people of different genders without discrimination.

The toilet room with floor-to-ceiling individual cubicles can then lead off from the shared anteroom. According to the report, one reason for revising the directive is the judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court in 2017, as a result of which the third gender option "diverse" was introduced in civil status law. "With the introduction of the third civil status by the legislature, new concepts for sanitary areas are required," says the draft of the VDI guideline.

Following the constitutional court ruling, the question arose as to whether new toilets would also have to be created for the third gender. According to the report, the engineering association recommends "consideration as part of a universal design". The VDI recommendations are not legally binding. According to "Bild", however, it is expected that many builders will invoke it in the future in order to be prepared for possible lawsuits.

However, women's rights activists were stunned by the new proposals. "It is irritating and worrying to see that women's toilets, i.e. shelters for girls and women, are to be given up in the name of anti-discrimination that we have come to love but have misunderstood," says human rights defender and recipient of the Federal Cross of Merit Inge Bell of the women's rights organization "Terre de Femme". .