page_title: Female urinal
section_title: Problems with implementation
hierarchical_section_title: Female urinal / Problems with implementation
context_page_description: A female urinal is a urinal designed for the anatomy of women, to allow ease of use by women and girls. Different models enable urination in standing, semi-squatting, or squatting postures, always without direct bodily contact with the urinal. Sitting models also exist, but with direct bodily contact with the urinal.
  Unisex urinals are also marketed by various companies, and can be used by both sexes. Female urinals and unisex urinals are much less common than male urinals. Urinals are more abundant in men's and boys' public toilets than in the facilities in private homes.
context_section_description: At present, two different arrangements are currently being implemented in practice: a row arrangement (usually with a partition as a separating element), comparable to male urinals; and in individual booths or cabins, as in classic toilets. The main advantage compared to the classic toilet, compact space requirements, is lost with the latter design. With a row arrangement, the density of facilities can be increased, resulting in shorter wait times. However, this is not the case with the booth arrangement, in which a classic toilet bowl is simply replaced by a urinal.
  The booth solution is often proposed with the argument that female use of open urinals is socially unacceptable and associated with embarrassment. However, urination while in the company of others can be a problem for some males as well.  There is always the possibility to switch to a classical toilet stall if the use of urinals is associated with shame (e.g. in the case of paruresis).
  This problem arises more in the context of increasing trends towards unisex toilets for males and females. A sharing of toilets raises the question of how urinals should be arranged for both sexes in the room. While toilets are usually housed in booths with lockable doors, urinals are usually installed openly in a row in gender-separated toilets. This construction method requires less space, allows for more people to urinate at the same time while promoting better hygiene and economics, and keeps the toilet stalls cleaner and more available for those who need them - which is currently one of the main advantages of installing male urinals. One possibility would be to continue offering urinals in rows. These could, whether separated into male and female urinals or as unisex urinals, be separated by so-called "pubic walls".
  However, it is questionable whether the lower level of privacy compared to conventional toilets would be accepted by the general public. Due to socio-cultural conventions, the concept of men/boys urinating with their backs visible to women/girls would possibly create awkwardness for both genders and would currently seem strange and contrary to common morals and etiquette for many users. There are even more practical issues for females, such as women/girls needing toilet paper, having to lower their pants, and sometimes tending to their menstrual hygiene needs while going to the toilet for urination.
  An alternative would be to accommodate urinals for both sexes in booths or to continue offering urinals for males only. However, this would at least limit the above-mentioned advantages of the urinals for females. Accordingly, the German lawyer and author Marcus Werner sees a significant disadvantage in unisex toilets if these would lead to the elimination of urinals in classic open rows.
  Therefore, it would be very, very sad if the unisex toilet trend would end up causing men to have to queue up because every urinal would be housed in a booth, which would dramatically reduce the number of facilities. That would be a total waste of time, calculated in terms of gender. Men lose time without women winning. There can be unisex urinals here. But please use the ergonomically wall-mounted urinals in a row. That would take the pressure off everyone.
  — Marcus Werner
  Urinals arranged in booths have not been popular, since the advantages compared to conventional toilets were not obvious, given the unchanged space requirement. After 13 years, the four ladies' urinals in the Salzburg Congress Center were removed in August 2015 due to a lack of interest. They have been replaced by conventional toilets.
  In the unisex toilets planned for the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin (Texas) in 2017, the urinals are to be located in an area separated from the entrance area by a door. These are designed as unisex urinals and are arranged in open rows within this range. This would allow men and women to use side-by-side urinals in this room, preferably with both genders standing with their face towards the wall, while those who prefer to not see persons of the opposite sex urinating may use a trad
caption: Unisex urinals (#2) which may be used by both men and women, combining features of a female- (#1) and male- (#3) only urinal