Women only swimming stopped

I'm not happy with enforced segregation, but I'm a pragmatist.
Things will never change if women are excluded form public life. Segregated rallies are better than the women having to stay at home and not participating at all. Change happens gradually, not overnight.

Excluding women is not progress. Imagine moving to a new country where you dont speak the language. How would you learn anything? The language or currency or exchange rate? How would you buy toiletries or sanitary wear? How would you get yourself or your kids to school, or a doctor or dentist?
If women need women only anything, give it to them.

Think about the normal, everyday things you do and stop taking them for granted. For many other people they can be extremely difficult.

You haven't actually answered my question Oliversmumsarmy.

How will women stopping demanding segregation from men, stop men from continually pushing us out of their way in public spaces?

Seriously, as someone who lives less than 500m from the pool in question, these women's only sessions have naff all to do with religion. I'd love the town to be more diverse but it isn't (at all). I didn't want to give any personal anecdotes on here as it's identifying but I have a few friends who are older women who would rather swim in a womens only session due to all sorts of varied reasons, some of which include reduced mobility in the pool. Their reasons shouldn't matter. There is a demand for those classes. If there is a demand for mens only or trans only then people in this town would fully support those classes too.

Any one else having this problem? (Hopefully it's just me and your not missing out on signatures!)

Just signed.

I don't think you know how equality works Olivers. Taking away women's only swim sessions and removing the opportunity for a mostly vulnerable subset of women to make use of a public facility is the opposite of equality.

I have met quite a few women who do exactly that but there again I am short fat and over 50 so completely invisible to the outside world or at least to women in their 20s, 30s and 40s who barge into me at any given opportunity

We can act like equals by stop demanding we are segregated

I agree that some women can also be arsey about using lanes in swimming pools/ spaces in public. But I have never met one, who actually barged into me or deliberately hurt me.

Men, lots. More often than I can count.

How do you suggest a woman acts like she's equal without being hurt by a man, Oliversmummy?

The woman who was almost pushed to her death, walked equally along a pavement. What could she have done more equally, which didn't result in that man punishing her for not moving quickly enough out of the space he decided he owned? What can women swimming along in the pool, do to be more equal with men who deliberately wait for them to catch up with them and then when they turn, kick them or barge into them? Tell me how equalling can stop men behaving like this and what sort of equalling I should be doing?

I have tried to sign however it said I needed to click a link to verify my email address. I received the email and clinked the link but it keeps bringing up an error message. Any one else having this problem? (Hopefully it's just me and your not missing out on signatures!)

Some of the arguments against aggressive men can be labelled at aggressive women, whilst men can also be intimidated by other men. Agreed some women feel uncomfortable about using a mixed pool as they might about walking in a park . Maybe increased cameras or security of the pool is the answer

AskBasil not all men do what you say they do. I certainly have only ever come across this from other women ploughing their way up and down the lanes which they get grumpy about if you dare swim in their "personal" lane

If women want to be treated equally then we do need to act like we are equal

Single sex sessions don't have to be 'justified' , other than there being a demand for it, and falling within the law. If they are to be compliant with the law there does need to be a justification.

Sighted- based on update appears they are back pedalling

Not sure why you have a bee in your bonnet about this particular point

You are happy then with religions which enforce sex segregation then ? Happy with men who refuse to sit next to women because of their religion? Happy with the Labour Party holding segregated political rallies?

I love it when there are no men in the pool because I don't get kicked, pushed out of the way and nearly drowned and generally treated as if I have no right to be in the swimming pool by my fellow swimmers.

Men target women in public to inflict violence on us in plain sight, that they can disguise as bumping into us accidentally. They do this on the tube and trains and getting on buses, on Putney Bridge while jogging, in other public places and in swimming pools.

It's particularly frightening when they do this in swimming pools because of the risk of drowning.

When men stop doing this (and also when they stop perving), I won't prefer it if they're not in the pool.

I go to women's only sometimes. There are hijabi women who just wouldn't feel they could exercise otherwise. Many women feel more comfortable in female only spaces especially when nearly naked for a great number of legitimate reasons.
If the idiot who complained actually cared about equality he'd be asking men's only sessions but no this isn't about that it's about his feeling of entitlement to women's bodies and spaces.

Lass it is possible to justify the provision of women only sessions without dragging religion into it.
The fact remains that many of the customers who use these sessions are religious, who wish to use them for religious reasons. As I was explaining to the poster who I adressed my original post on this subject to, who didn't understand why some women wanted women only sessions when she was happy to swim in mixed sex sessions.
Not sure why you have a bee in your bonnet about this particular point.
Single sex sessions don't have to be 'justified' , other than there being a demand for it, and falling within the law. People having religious beliefs doesn't negate either of those points.

Lass you are hard work, aren't you?
My pool with a Muslim population of none doesn't have any women only sessions. So there you go.

And indeed still does have women only sessions , despite being one of the least diverse places in the UK. It is more than possible to justify the provision of women only sessions without dragging religion into it.

I wish my local pool had that many sessions available to swim.

Just because your local pool has that many sessions doesn't mean everyone else's local pool has the same.

No we should not pander to any religious group which thinks perfectly normal activities must be segregated for no good reason except because they must.

I very much doubt it was the demand from Muslim women which resulted in this. The swimming pool in my home town with a Muslim population of none when I lived there had women only sessions.

Lass it was a womens group, not a Muslim women's group. Some of the women who used it were Muslim. Their reasons for using it were their religious beliefs.
Seems clear cut to me. Other users have their own reasons, Muslim women have their religious beliefs.
I suspect that many of these women only sessions wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for the demand from Muslim women. But we mustn't pander to them according to you.

Lass pandering to religious beliefs?
How about just recognising that women have a variety of reasons for wanting to have sex segragated sessions, some of which may be religiously motivated

There is no rational reason for separate facilities like this being provided to a specific religious group. If you are putting that forward as a reason I do not support it.

I know the pool and the changing rooms are mixed. The showers are on side of pool.

There isn't a main pool and a training pool. It's a single pool that is extremely well used, fantastic range of classes, cannot fault the staff that work there.

Thanks to everyone who has signed the petition, I hope they get decent legal advice now.