The First Gendered Bathroom Appeared at a Paris Ball
The very first gendered bathroom to be documented in written history was at a Parisian ball in 1739. At the time, the guests thought that this was rather eccentric and fun. Gendered bathrooms emerged in the Victorian era , when widespread plumbing was just beginning to appear. Unfortunately, a lot of facilities would only provide male-only restrooms.
This encouraged women to stay home, or they had to hide going to the bathroom under their skirts by relieving themselves in the gutter. It wasn’t until 1887 that Massachusetts passed a law demanding that employers provide female bathrooms for their workers. It finally became normal to have both men and women’s bathrooms in the 1920’s.
