A nine-year-old Iowa boy has created a foot-activated toilet seat lever, named the Privy Prop, in a bid to end a long-running feud between the sexes.

"My Mom was getting mad at me for forgetting to put the toilet seat down and she was falling in," said Jake Wulf of Odebolt, Iowa.

The Privy Prop functions much like pedal-powered garbage cans, which raise and lower the lid when the user steps on a lever. Using plywood and steel strips, Wulf created the contraption for his school's Invention Convention before it proceeded to the Iowa State Fair in the summer.

Wulf travelled to Los Angeles last week to be featured on a young inventors episode on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Wulf says he is considering applying for a patent for his invention.

With files from the Associated Press