Amsterdam allocates one hundred million for public toilets after pressure from women

Geerte Piening, then 21 years old, was returning home one night in 2015. In the Leidesplein district, which is the center of nightlife, bars and restaurants were already open after closing time, and the nearest public toilet for women was two kilometers away. The police fined Pieningová 140 euros (over CZK 3,500) for squatting on the street and urinating. Piening felt a deep sense of injustice.

“There were a lot of urinals around, but I wasn’t supposed to go anywhere to pee,” she recalls, according to The Guardian. She appealed the fine, pointing out that there are 35 public urinals in Amsterdam, but only three public toilets for women. She reminded that this is not only a problem for them, but also for wheelchair users. “It’s really important that there are places like this for everyone,” she added.

She received no response from the city for the next two years. But then she received a court summons due to an unpaid fine. She reported on her case publicly and about 20 journalists came to the court hearing. The court rejected her appeal against the fine, but reduced it to 90 euros (about 2260 crowns). The judge also offered his perspective when he advised Piening to use a men’s urinal instead of the women’s restroom in case of an emergency. “It may not be pleasant, but it is possible,” the man in the judge’s robes told her.

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Piening laughed off the judge’s recommendation with friends, but elsewhere in the country the reaction was sharper, writes The Guardian. Events were held against him in various cities.

“Women from all over the country, come show how (not) to pee in male public urinals,” urged organizers of the Power to the Peepee protest. Other women posted photos on social media of the gymnastic feats they undertook to comply with the judge’s recommendation. Some have signed a petition addressed to the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture to do something about “urinary inequality”.

Ilana Roodekerková, who was an Amsterdam representative, also joined the protests. “There are things that once you notice, you can’t stop noticing,” says the politician, who is now a member of the Dutch parliament.

Roodekerk and Piening produced a document calling on Amsterdam to increase the number of public toilets. He recalls that reactions were initially mixed. But she teamed up with other members of the council to draw attention to the lack of toilets for women.

The city began to change its approach and had mobile toilets installed in large parks during the summer months. It also informed that toilets can be used, for example, at police or fire stations. But the campaigners for “toilet equality” won a final victory this month, when the city announced that more wheelchair-accessible toilets will be available to people from October. The city has not yet announced how many there will be in total, but it is investing four million euros in their construction.