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Public Conveniences In Victorian London By Barbara Penner: Article Analysis

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This presentation is an expression of my personal feeling and reaction after reading the article, A World of Unmentionable Suffering Women's Public Conveniences in Victorian London by Barbara Penner. From her presentation, Barbara is much concerned about the gender parity, which is not sought for growth but to diminish women in a way. When reading the article, I am perturbed by the society that is male-dominated and takes women and second class citizens to men, which implies that all the privileges are only preserved for them, even at the detriments of women. There is an ostensible patriarchal structure, just as she puts it, which is evident in everyday life, including the creation of essential spaces such as public lavatories.
Even though there is an advancement of the power structure of women, there are still areas of discrimination against women, which I think needs to be addressed. It is troubling to see that women are given thin attention in the use of public lavatories, as men are given more attention than their female counterparts are. …show more content…

From the articles, Barbara gives different pictures that distinguish what happened then and what happens today. There is an improvement in service provision that now allocates sufficient space in women lavatories, as well as men. But one question that one would be interested in knowing is whether the issue of women paying and men being exempted from such has been dealt with. Indeed, many people, including the government has discouraged any act of discrimination. The only area that people still complain about is employment, where there is an outcry that men are given more recognition than women. For instance, men are more considered for promotion than women are. Secondly, women get meager salary than men. Therefore, as much as a lot has changed, there is still more to be

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