M&S Colchester claim mixed changing is ‘completely safe’ for women.

I have a degree of sympathy for the bloke who was filmed looking like an absolute muppet, which is why I’m saying that M&S need to train him & the rest of their store managers to explain that M&S UK don’t want to provide single sex fitting rooms.

At which point, it’s above his pay grade as to what M&S customers choose to take from that information.

But he’s hardly been ‘humiliated publically’. He’s just dealt with a customer facing situation clumsily, not been flogged through the lingerie section with a stained thong (apparently it’s not a good idea to go anywhere near unsealed M&S underwear, if you read their reviews…).

primark do the opposite - mixed gender and female but no male only. Primark reintroduces women-only fitting rooms - BBC News

A lot of posters on here are mixing up a policy that is unfair/unwise/nonsensical (all of which I agree providing male and mixed gender changing rooms but no female equivalent are) and one that is illegal which it is not.

Because there's no law saying shops HAVE to provide changing rooms at all there's no law saying that they have to provide single sex changing rooms, or if you decide to provide male changing rooms you also have to provide female ones, or vice versa.

I'm surprised at so many people assuming that if you have 1 'thing' reserved for one sex you legally HAVE to have equal provision for the other sex. Have you not noticed, for example, ladies only swim sessions at pools, girl only coding classes, female self-defence classes, brownies, school football teams where boys play football and rugby and girls netball and hockey, etc.?

Im wondering the same. Have they definitely not changed the men’s too?

On M&S store finder, they list
Fitting rooms(men)
Fitting rooms(women)

For Stane Park Colchester.

I dont think its unreasonable to go to the store and expect the changing rooms to be as advertised.

what law, exactly?

He might have been all of those things but to humiliate publicly like this is unacceptable. Write a letter of complaint to head office to his line manager anything but this is just out of order.

I am confused. Does Marks and Spencer still provide a men's changing/fitting room? With signs saying as such?
If so, how is it NOT discriminatory to provide a mens changing room but not one for women? Or can women also use the men’s one? Anyone know?

He WAS crap & dismissive.

A more appropriate response would have been ‘madam, I’m running this store in accordance with UK M&S head office policy, but I would be happy to signpost you to how to raise a concern with them. Please come this way so I can talk you through it in the office, & would you mind not videoing me as I’m uncomfortable with being filmed at work’.

’It’s perfectly safe!’ followed by asking her to leave & legging it isn’t great optics.

I’d argue that if M&S are going to have unisex fitting rooms & no single sex options in the UK, whilst emphatically providing single sex fitting rooms elsewhere, it’s a deliberate policy & they’ve decided that this is what serves their UK business model.

At which point, it’s only fair to expect them to train their store managers to manage queries & complaints about what is inevitably going to be a controversial policy.

There is a higher rate of sexual assault in mixed sex changing facilities than in single sex.

So why do the men get one to themselves, but the women don't? It is unfair, and shows utter contempt for women. Other posterx here have listed thecreasonscwhy mixed changing rooms are a bad idea, but why do men get a choice of mixed or single sex, but women get mixed only?

Do those who object to these changing rooms also object to the changing villages at swimming pools? I can’t see how they’re any different, and the changing villages are at all the pools near me.

But in this situ the menz have one to themselves, but not us. It is not fair or right ( or legal?). But, hey, just accept this discrimination.

He could have said "I note your concerns and will pass them upward". Instead he invited her to leave the store.

When a company goes all-out on an unpopular policy you need the proof, though.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

I didn’t know about this but that’s gross! I’m assuming people reported the reviews and they did nothing?!

I haven’t been in M&S for a while but I wouldn’t want to use a gender neutral changing room even with locked doors

So there isn't any shoplifting from M&S? Their security is that good?

This wasn’t the case in this store though. They had unisex changing rooms.

Have you got some stats for this? Can we have stats for mixed sex changing facilities versus single sex changing facilities?

If they have one set of changing rooms which specifically say they are for men but don't have the equivalent for women then they are breaking the law.

This applies to several branches of M&S I've been in.

Yes, exactly. And they have security cameras outside the doors which are constantly monitored so no one steals anything.

Those changing rooms are safer than the streets, where (let's not forget) you can be raped, the attack filmed and no one jailed for it.

This is an issue of such little urgency I can’t even fathom why it has spiralled the way it has. Disagree with M&S policy all you like but nothing was immediately and pressingly wrong. Posting this poor chap on social media was highly unwarranted. Customer service roles are terrible as they are without people shoving phones in your face, which by the way many stores have policies against filming their staff.

Where have you got that from?
She doesn't mention anything about filming (other than her filming him). She only says "why should I have to change in front of a man?"

Which she doesn't.

There's no evidence there was any specific man (trans or not) in that changing room at that time, and she doesn't 'have' to use a changing room at all. It's not like a toilet, which is linked to a universal biological function, trying clothes on is completely optional.

She also says that it is illegal to not provide a space for women to change. It isn't. Shops can decide whether to provide sex specific changing rooms, GN changing rooms or no changing rooms at all.

So for someone who is so keen on supporting women and girls you think she'd a) get her facts right and b) prioritise her efforts on actions which might actually achieve her stated aims. A random shop employee is never going to override store policy on the say-so of a customer ranting at him, and, on a wider scale, do you really think M&S head office, or similar shops, or even ordinary, non 'peaked' members of the public are going to watch this video and think 'Yes it's the shouty woman making stuff up and incorrectly accusing people just trying to carry out their job of breaking the law who is in the right and who I sympathise with here, I'll reconsider my previous view on the subject.'

It's a complete own goal.

One of the best things about Mumsnet is the way we check every claim. Here's a link to a previous thread that has lots of helpful links:

Does anyone actually fully support trans people in women's changing rooms and loos? | Mumsnet

So M&S’s policy is ‘we do not provide single sex facilities for customers to try on clothes; our fitting rooms are unisex’.

That’s legal, no problem there. Not sure it’s what their core demographic would want, or expect, though. They’d probably hate lots of publicity about that policy.

Incidentally, I live overseas. M&S are absolutely 100% crystal clear that their changing facilities are single sex here. I know because I emailed them about it a few years ago.

Citation not assertion needed