Abstract
Early efforts to push for public restrooms in American cities have led to the unfortunate development of intersectionality in the United States public restrooms. From the concern of public health and societal pressures of women to maintain being prime examples of bodily health to classism leading to lack of access to sanitary public restrooms within cities and later in history segregated restrooms by race to today’s issues with ADA ‘gender neutral’ restrooms leaving unable bodied individuals and transgender people to be excluded from the social sphere of the public restroom. Public restrooms have contributed to the establishment of a patriarchal society. The focus of this research is to analyze the development of restrooms through research of our primary and secondary sources and through analysis of floor plans to grasp the impact on intersectionality of sexism, racism, ableism, classism, and transphobia in the social sphere of public restrooms. This research dives into the historical context of how restrooms came to be in the United States and the disproportionate effects it has left on minorities throughout the years up until today. The purpose of this research is to reject the idea that any individual regardless of race, gender, class status, and able-bodied or not should be governed from their ability to use a restroom with comfort and without being excluded from the social sphere of the public restroom.
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