Women and Public Facilities in TaiwanRevising Policies on Public Spaces

Herng-Dar Bih, translated by Susanne Ganz

Space is socially constructed, just likelanguage. The arrangement of spacereflects and reinforces gender, eth-

nicity, and class relations in society.However, teachers and designers in thefield have been utterly insensitive to gen-der. Only after the emergence of thewomen's movement and feminist thinkingdid people awaken from their 'gender-blind* consideration of public spaces.

Awakening, tbe first feminist organi-zation in Taiwan, was founded in 1982.Many other women's groups were formedafter the abolishment of martial law in1987. Since then, 'gender and space" poli-cies were promoted in tbree ways:i) Legislation: for example, the Sexual

Assault Prevention Act. the SexualHarassment Prevention Act. the GenderEquality in Employment Act. and theGender Equity Etlucation Act were allpassed within the last ten years,

ii) Participation in a GovernmentCommittee: the Commission onWomen's Rights Promotion issued theWomen's Policy Guidelines in Taiwanwith a chapter on women's safety inpublic spaces.

iii) Social Movement: particularly theWomen's Toilet Movement and thecampaign for breastfeeding rooms,which 1 discuss in this article.Although feminist thinking is still

neglected in most educational settingswithin tbe fields of urban planning andarchitecture, ibe past decade has wit-nessed significant progress towards moregender-sensitive policies and their imple-mentation in the areas of public restroomsand breastfeeding rooms. These are twofactors wbicb greatly affect women's abil-ity to be mobile, to participate in the pub-lic domain and to engage in work outsidetheir homes.

The Women's Toilet Movement:Demands for New Policies

In 1996, Wang Ching-ning, tlie head ofthe Women's Studies Club at Nation;ilTaiwan University (NTU), was elecicJhead of the National Taiwan Universit\Student AssiKiation on a gender platformtbat included improving the women's toi-lets on campus. Also in 1996, Peng Yen-wen, a graduate student at the GraduateInstitute of Building and Planning. tt«ik anelective independent studio course focusingon toilet planning and design. During thetenn. Peng, the NTU Student Association,and the university's Research Center forGender and Space joined bands to conducta comprehensive survey of tbe more than100 campus toilets. They surveyed tbenumber of female and male toilet stalls andthe availability of urinals, in addition toassessing tltxjr space, lighting, ventilation,location, flooring, washbasins, coat hooks,waiting space, doors, and barrier-free facil-ities. Seizing the opportunity of Women'sDay on March 8, the student associationreleased its inspection report on campuswomen's restrooms at the campus entrance.It was called 'Tlie March 8 New Positionon Women's Toilets Allows Me to Pee atEase.' Aside from announcing tbe surveyresults, a piece of street theatre was per-formed which caught tbe eyes of varioustelevision stations and print media. A suc-cessful press conference greatly encouragedthe survey organizers. On May 4, togetherwith tbe Coalition of Female Students ofUniversities, tbe NTU Student Associationand Research Centre for Gender and Spaceheld another press conference in one of themen's rooms at tbe Taipei Railway Stationwith the slogan: 'Seizing the Men'sR(M)ms.' On May 5. they beld a male versusfemale urinating competition at Ta-AnForest Park to measure the average time

Taiwan's Women's Toitet Movement banner; "TheMarch 8 New Position on Women's Toilets AttowsMe to Pee at Ease."

men and women take at a urinal and watercloset. These two events brought to publicattention the inequal gender distribution ofpublic restrooms.

The women's toilet movement contin-ued to gain momentum. Witb strong publicpressure, officials at all levels and people'srepresentatives, one after tbe other,expressed their concem. They demandedthat the Construction and PlanningAgency, which oversees public restrooms,change the existing regulations. OnOctober 21, 1996, the Ministry of theInterior amended tbe relevant section ofthe "Technical Regulations for Buildings— Building Facilities' and markedlyraised the number of women's restroomsin public buildings. Under the new regu-lations, elementary and junior highschools, for example, have to provide onetoilet for every 50 males, one urinal forevery 30 males, and one toilet for every15 females. Under the old regulations theratio was one toilet for every 35 females.

Since many public restnx)ms charged afee to female users, while males diti not haveto pay anytbing. protests were held at theTaiwan Mott)r Transport Company's west-side bus terminal against regulations requir-

28 WOMEN & ENVIRONMENTS www.weimag.com SPRING/SUMMER 2006

ing women users to pay. Soon, women'srestrooms at highway rest stops no longercharged female travelers for toilet use.

As a result of the women's toiletTiiovement of 1996, public restrooms andrelated gender issues received widespreadattention from the general public and thegovernment. Women were consulted in theformulation of laws, policies, planning,and design. The Taipei City Governmentdesignated 2001 the 'Year of the PublicToilet' and declared that making the nec-essary improvements was an importantduty for the city's administration duringthat year. Public toilets were required tobecome 'not dirty', 'not smelly', and 'notwet.' Not only did the ratio of men's towomen's restrooms reach the standard ofone to three, but women's toilets in publicspaces around Taiwan also started toimprove in the following ways:

• Direct redesigning of men's rooms intowomen's rooms: for example, after the'seizure of men's rooms' at the TaipeiRailway Station, one men's toilet wasredesigned into a women's toilet.

• Flexibly regulating use: during events,performances, or exhibitions in placessucb as the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Halland the Taipei World Trade Center, cer-tain men's restrooms are assigned forfemale use simply by hanging a sign onthe doors.

• Switching the location of male andfemale restrooms: for security and privacyreasons, women's nx)ms were in the pastoften put in corners that were far awayfrom tbe lines of movement. As a result,contrary to what was intended, theybcctunc diingerous spaces. Out of safetyconsiderations, tbe New Student Buildingat National Taiwan University convertedthe men's axinis near lines of movementclose to staircases into women's rooms.At the same time, women's rooms, whichwere hidden behind the staircases so thatpassers-by were not able to see tbem,were changed into men's rooms.

• Women's restrooms were fitted withalarm bells and otber service equipmentsucb as hooks, toilet paper, and liquidhand soap.

• The women's restrooms at highway reststops no longer charge fees for use.

Although the Women's ToiletMovement has brought about some impor-tant cbanges, there is still a lot for us femi-nist activists to do. The new regulations fortoilets in public buildings do not apply toexisting, older buildings. Since most toiletsare in existing buildings, women will haveto continue lining up for quite some time.We need to persuade government., schools,and corporations to reconstruct, refurbish,and bring the toilets in their existing build-ings up to new standards. We also need topropose unisex toilets. These will providemore choices for women, reduce time spentwaiting in line-ups, and solve the obviousdifficulties experienced by transgenderedpeople. Thirdly, given the inequalitybetween men's and women's toilets, wemust encourage women to use men's toiletswhen there are no male users — providedthey take tbeir personal safety into account.

New Planning and Design Standardsfor Breastfeeding Spaces

The World Health Organization adoptedan important resolution in 2002 declaringthat receiving breast milk is an infant'sbasic right and suggesting tbat breastfeed-ing should continue until the child is morethan two years old. Yet statistics show thatTaiwan's breastfeeding rate graduallydeclined from 95 per cent in 1962 to 40per cent in 1996. In 1999. the rate ofwomen who breastfed during their stay athospital maternity wards, rose again to 55per cent, but only 20 per cent of thesemothers continued to breastfeed sixmonths after giving birth.

The Gender Equality in EmploymentAct, which was adopted in 2001 by theLegislative Yuan (the legislative assembly ofTaiwan), stipulates in Article 23 that: "Anemployer with more than 250 employeesshall set up child care facilities wheremothers can breastfeed and change babies.*However, even if breastfeeding rooms maybe helpful to breastfeeding women at workand when tbey go out. the rtwms exist onlyin name if they are set up in inappropriatelocations or if they are not well maintained,A survey was recently conducted of 381breastfeeding rooms, which had been set upby the private sector witb subsidies from theDepartment of Health. The survey found

that the average user rate for such rooms inschools, public transit stations, and publicoffice buildings stood at less than 20 visitsper month. !n three locations, the user ratefor these breastfeeding rooms stotHi at zero,including the one at tbe Tataka VisitorCenter in Yushan National Park. Seventeenbreastfeeding rooms were transferred toother uses or closed after the governmentsubsidies ran out. The survey also discov-ered that the design of some breastfeedingrooms was not discrete enougb. that signswere not clear enough, and tbat some roomswere simply t(.K) small (only 1 ping or 3.3square meters). Some breastfeeding roomswere even locked during business hours formore 'convenient' control. Often people didnot know how to get the keys and gave uptrying to use the r(X)ms.

A survey by the BreastfeedingAssociation of Taiwan found that manybreastfeeding women in Taiwan make dowith whatever kind of room is available.Tbe most common deficiency of breast-feeding rooms is that the place is onlyshielded with cloth curtains and thus lacksprivacy. Tbere is also t(K) little space, tablesand seats are often not strong enough, andthere are no electrical outlets. Even if tbeuser rate is low. we should not deny theneed for breastfeeding ro(.ims; instead wemust enforce standards and improve theirlocation and accessibility. For example,locating breastfeeding rooms in remotecomers of public places gives the problem-atic message that breastfeeding is an activitythat should be done clandestinely.

Nor are breastfeeding rootns welldesigned in public transportation systems.Only 19 of 105 railway stations havebreastfeeding rooms. Only four expresstrains are equipped with a breastfeedingroom. On long distance trips, breastfeedingmothers have to express their breast milkor breastfeed their babies in the toilet.Besides the discomfort and inconveniencefor mothers, other passengers and cleaningstaff complain about the toilets being wcu-pied for too long. Last November onewoman wbo breastfed her baby in theTaipei Story House was forced to leave thebuilding because of her 'indecent' behav-iour. After that, more than 30 members ofthe Breastfeeding Association of Taiwan

SPRING/SUMMER 2006 WOMEN & ENVIRONMENTS www.we1ma9.com 29

came to nurse their babie.s in the TaipeiStory House to demand the right to breast-feed in public. In response, the Taipei CityGovernment is now proposing to adopt the'Taipei Public Space BreastfeedingOrdinance' which would include fines ofNTS30,0(K) (approx. US$ I,O(K)) for any-one who interferes with or prevents mothersfrom breastfeeding their children.

Breastfeeding the next generation shouldbe seen as a sacred task, but in many soci-eties breastfeeding mothers are not given therespect Ihcy deserve. The BreastfeedingAssociation of Taiwan has thereforelaunched a movement for the improvementof breastfeeding rooms. Tbe first locationwas set up in the A8 Building of Shin KongMitsukoshi Department Store in TaipeiCity's Sinyi District. The A.sstxiation spentbetween NT$20.0(X) iind NTS30.(XX) out ofits own budget to create a breastfeedingroom within a limited space. The nwm wasdesigned to focus on ihe needs of mothersand infants so it is more irequently used. Theseats, for instance, which originally facedcurtains directly, were turned sideways sothat a mother can conveniently draw the cur-tains to increase her sen.se of security. TheA.s,sociation asked specialists to create chairs

of differentsizes andheights toaccommtxlatemothers andchildren withdifferent bodyshapes. Thisbreastfeedingroom alsoprovides legrests and fold-ing tables forbelongings.

Breastfeeding room designedby the BreastfeedingAssociation of Taiwan

Decision-Makers and Users: TheGender Gap Remains

Policies, plans, and the design of pub-lic places still do not reflect women'sneeds and often exacerbate di.scriminationagainst women. A very important reasonremains that the majority of people whomake decisions about policy, planning,and design in Taiwan are male. Rarely dothese men recognize the value of consult-

Department

Grad. inst. of Building andPlanning. National Taivi/anUniversity

Department of UrbanPlanning, National ChengKung University

Department of ArchitectureNational Cbeng KungUniversity

Department of ArchitectureTamkang University's

Department of UrbanPlanning, Feng ChiaUniversity's

Department of ArchitectureFeng Chia University's

Department of ArchitectureChung Yuan ChristianUniversity's

Dept. of Architecture andUrban DesignCbinese Culture University

Number offemale fuLl-time teachers

Q

1

1

2

1

3

1

2

Number of fuU-time teachersin total

7

U

24

19

20

12

15

Per cent offemale full-time teachers

0%

7%

4%

11%

8%

15%

8%

13%

ing citizens and users, especially whenthese citizens and users are women.

This problem may well stem fromdeeply entrenched inequalities within thespace planning professions themselves. Intbe university programmes, which trainthe next generation of design professionals(e.g., architecture, planning, and land-scape architecture), women teachers arevastly under-represented. Male-femaleteacher ratios in Taiwanese programmesare listed in Figure 1.

Moreover, women account for roughly20 to 30 per cent of tbe students in plan-ning aitd design professions and the shareof licen.sed female architects is a merethree per cent. Outside the university envi-ronment, women are even more under-represented. The Taipei Urban PlanningCommittee has just four women amongits 21 members. The same goes for theTaipei Urban Design, Land Use andDevelopment Permit Review Committee.

Amazing changes reflecting women'sneeds have occurred over the past decade inTaiwan. However, much more remains to be

changed. More feminists need to participatein the planning and design of space andmore planners and designers need tobecome feminists. More women are neededin powerful positions that enable them tomake decisions about the built environment.And perhaps most importantly, gendermainstreaming is needed to bring abimt thekinds of systemic change that can contributeto the creation of more gender equitable cul-tures, values, processes, and decisions. S

Herng-Dar Bih, lhdbihianlu.edu.tw) isAssociate Professor at Graduate Institute ofBuilding and Planning at the National TaiwanUniversity, Taiv^an. He received his Ph.D. inEnvironmental Psychology from CityUniversity of New York. His researcfi Interestsinclude environmental psychology, genderand space, and qualitative research methods.

Further Reading:

Greed Clara, Inclusive Urban Design:Public Toilets, Architectural Press,Oxford UK: 2003

30 WOMEN & ENVIRONMENTS www.weimag.com SPRING/SUMMER 2006