Urination needs and practices away from home: where do women go?

This paper places the sanitation spotlight on urination. Open urination is a cause of concern for various reasons including: public decency, public nuisance, smell, health and hygiene. Measures aimed to stop the practice focus on: 1) creating and enforcing laws; 2) changing social norms; and 3) making more urinals available. For gendered reasons, women are less likely to practice open urination, instead becoming practised at withholding urination when away from home. This paper argues that attention to urination can help cast light on gendered needs, norms and behaviours (and how these change along the human life course) in a way that the sanitation focus on defecation hasn’t. This paper is presented in conjunction with a side event at the WEDC conference titled: “Need to Wee?” Please join us there to continue the conversation.