To think that men shouldn’t be in female changing rooms?

But m and s allow anyone in any changing room. So men can and do go in the bra section change rooms at m and s , bravissimo, all the others, I dont think any are single sex any more and havent been for years. So I dont know why you think getting chairs removed is some great feat.

Yep.
Why does any man need to be inside a woman's changing room?

Often woman's toilets will have this sign.... I assume to warn the proportion of women and girls (of I am one) that there is a man in their private space and to make adjust (if needed).

I don't mind male cleaners in the loos, I get a heads they are there, they are there for a legitimate reason, they hopefully are less unlikely to anything pervy as they are easily identified and could lose their jobs.

I don't want to see random husbands, boyfriends etc there.

OP do complain. You are right to be concerned. When your gut instinct is revulsion - follow it.

My local M&S had a sort of ante room outside the bra fitting rooms and it had 5 chairs. Always full of men waiting for women - so you queue holding all your lingerie in front of random men. No thanks. I hated it and don’t shop there but went with DD when she needed her 1st bra. Thank god we didn’t have to queue with them. She was mortified enough.

I commented to the manager and wrote an email. Returned 5 weeks later. The chairs had gone. I mentioned it to a staff member and she said customers had commented and written and the chairs were moved and staff hugely appreciated it as they hated it too.

We are not powerless.

I've been shopping with teen DD a few times recently and have noticed this and was really surprised. I get claustrophobic so spend as little time in the cubicle as I can and, as soon as I am decent in something I am trying on, open the curtain and step into the bigger space. This also means I get to see myself in the bigger mirrors they usually have out there, can discuss with the shop assistant whether a size up/size down might be a better fit and can gather the views of the other women in the changing room who will often say whether you look particularly good in something or if something is unflattering. I can't do this if there are random men in there hanging around.
I also find it disheartening that the woman they are with is then dependent on the male to tell her whether she looks good in something or not and her might have his own agenda in the opinion he gives. I want my DD to dress for herself and to have the support of the sisterhood of random women in the changing room, not to rely on a boyfriend for his views.

Leaving aside the ones with curtains that have gaps, many have doors that are quite low. As a 6 ft tall woman, I could easily look into cubicles if I wanted to, even standing well back, with enough plausible deniability to say it was a mistake. Many, many men are tall enough to do this, even accidentally. When I change, the doors in most rooms don’t cover my chest high enough. I certainly don’t want men in there.

I agree OP.
I would even question why a man would even choose to sit in a women’s changing room? If his female partner is trying on clothes he can wait outside and view the outfits there.
Any of the men in my family or acquaintance would flatly refuse for fear of embarrassing women who were undressed and trying on clothes.

I'm sorry. I know that on holiday everyone will see me in my swimming costume.
But do I want to come out of a fitting room in a swimming costume I'm trying out and be greeted by some bloke sat on the bench, within the confines of the full length mirror zone while I view myself?
Of course not.
How bizarre.
It's a private women's only space, surely?!

This is why I haven't used a shop changing room in over 15 years and try on clothes at home then return if I have to but it's not ideal.

If I went into a female changing room in a shop and there were men in there I'd immediately leave!

I don't care if they 'just want a sit down' go and sit on a bench outside then!!

But they are unisex or "gender neutral" if you prefer.

H and m, new look, m and s, Topshop, all of them are now gender neutral.

There used to be single sex changing rooms, sadly no longer.

I boycott m and s and have since 2018 or 2017 I forget. I dont shop in the others.

Yes, what could possibly happen? 🤔

https://reduxx.info/women-call-for-primark-boycott-following-latest-gender-neutral-changing-room-violation/

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/men-filmed-people-swimming-pools-changing-rooms-bathrooms-police-b1154508.html

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-65090161

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-62616681

You probably just try on a new bra on the shop floor, don't you? After all, what's the issue?

No, they should wait outside. Ridiculous. I'm surprised they're not embarrassed coming in.

Yeah, but your comfort shouldn't come above other women's comfort.

Mmm. Of course men shouldn’t make women feel uncomfortable or be allowed in women’s spaces, BUT in my case my DH is an amazing shopper and I’m dreadful at it, so I always want to show him. I don’t go shopping with my girl friends and I don’t have a mum. I absolutely hate having to abandon my cubicle and pad past the changing room attendant in socks and then put into the shop in, say, a swimsuit. The ideal is a waiting area out of sight of cubicles but also not in the middle of a shop. Our local M&S has that set up but some only have seats in the changing room.

Incidentally I’ve just said this to my DH and he says he wouldn’t dream of going into a women’s changing room!

A changing room is an intimate setting
and the man would be at relatively close quarters. The young girl would be trying on the bathing suit and could be too tight, or or not fitting right, and she could feel the man was staring. There would also most likely be other women who are not the man’s wife or girlfriend in the changing room not liking him being there either.

Context matters. Somehow there is a difference between a man watching you three feet away in a changing room, and being somewhere on the beach in a crowd of similarly scantily dressed people.

It is. I have only ever seen them outside.

If you are worried that an adult male would have been her in a bathing suit should she have chosen to step out and show you… where was likely to wear the bathing suit? A pool? a beach? Waterpark? Places where adults males could also see her?

There has always been (very bored) men sitting around changing cubicles. This isn't a new thing.

I don’t think it’s new. I worked at Topshop years ago, and so many men used to do / try to do this. We used to try to ask them to wait outside, but very few listened. We even had a couple of women complain that we’d asked their partners not to come in.

Some men only care about women’s issues if you refer to their daughters. They then get that because their “property” being affected is an affront to their manhood.

If there's a man in the women's changing room, then he's revealed himself as having no respect for the privacy of the women who are taking their clothes off, and therefore definitely not suitable to be in there in the first place. I don't give a shit if he's with his girlfriend, how is that relevant? It's a man in the WOMEN'S changing room