To think this is unfair?

[Whenlifegivesyouoranges]

I joined a gym a few months ago and one of the main points for me was that it’s female only from 9-7 weekdays. I’ve just had this email from them and I’ll be cancelling as it no longer fits in with the times I can go, but this is ridiculous, right??

Bizarre.
Are 12 year olds allowed to use a gym on their own? If not, who will be accompanying them? Presumably they’ll have to have a sister or cousin under 24.

WTF all you like. It’s a private business and can do largely what it wants.

Fucking hell that's well ageist 😡

Unfortunately, this is the only gym within a close proximity to me. Or close enough that I can’t use the distance as a reason to not go.

Well yeah but it's a terrible business decision. They are basically excluding a huge chunk of their customers from peak hours. I'd be surprised if they don't get a lot of negative feedback about it.

OP, Age is a protected characteristic in the Equality Act and unless they have a really good, verifiable reason for denying women over 24 access to the gym and classes at peak times then they are breaking the law.

Is there an issue with women between 24 and 45, say, bringing their children and leaving them in the cafe while they work out? They need to deal with that by changing their rules on children.
Have younger women complained about older women taking up space when it's assumed that those older women could attend the gym at a different time of day? This is blatant discrimination on the grounds of age.
Is the gym concerned that it has so many women over 40 that younger women are being put off sighing up? They need to congratulate themselves on their success and find a way of attracting youngsters.
They might argue all of those things, but I doubt a court would find them fair and proportionate.

Email them saying:
'Age is a protected characteristic in the Equality Act. It is illegal to discriminate on the grounds of age without very good reason. Would you please let me know, within 10 days, the reasons why you propose to discriminate against women over the age of 24 who wish to attend between 4pm and 7pm Mon-Fri. If I don't hear from you I will be raising a discrimination case against you. Kind regards, etcetera'

Don't give up a facility that suits your needs, OP, fight for your rights. The Citizen's Advice Bureau will help you. Good luck.

Yeah this seems like madness to me. I can understand one or two sessions a week but every weekday?! Most people go to the gym after work so now basically you can’t go to the gym at all unless you go at the weekend or early in the morning, which is mixed sex I presume?

Thank you for this. They definitely don’t have an issue with members bringing kids as they have a tiny cafe with about 4 chairs and it’s on a totally different floor to the gym, so you couldn’t just leave the kids there. I did wonder about the legality of it

I would look for a new gym and cancel your membership straightaway

I don’t understand the “young women need a comfortable space” part of the email

There’s obviously been something said in their feedback to make this decision. Odd that younger women don’t want to be around older women

WTF all you like. It’s a private business and can do largely what it wants.

This is wrong. Do you think private businesses can legally discriminate against black people, or Muslim people, or disabled people or gay people? No.

So why do you think it's okay to discriminate against people over the age of 24?

I'm confused. It says you can still use the ladies gym outside of these hours?

So there’s a main gym that alternatives times between men and women and then a separate ladies gym that ladies can use all the time?

If the men can use the gym after 7pm are they really saying women over 24 has to use the gym before 4?That seems really odd!

The e-mail says ‘based on feedback’ so I’m wondering if they actually got a lot of younger women asking for this (for what reason I don’t know, it would actually be interesting if OP wrote to the gym and asked for the reasoning - I’ll be waiting for an update for sure!) but they also said for classes. Just wondering if it’s some sort of intense HIIT session or something, although they could just say “reserved for this class” and if it’s the type to attract that demographic, then the session does its own ‘selection’.

@Whenlifegivesyouoranges It looks to me like women over the age of 24 and who work 9-5pm will be unable to go to the gym unless they work next door to it and can go in their lunch break? thus, they dont appreciate the custom of the majority of the working women which the gym is supposed to be serving. maybe they think the over 24's are not glamorous enough to be coming out of the gym in the evening??! just absolutely weird!! bad marketing!

There is nothing to be lost and all to be gained by sending them an email pointing out that they are behaving illegally, OP. Go for it! All the other older women will be behind you.

You could. even stage a little demo outside the gym with placards accusing them of ageism and put them on social media. That might make them change their minds even more swiftly.

I think it’s the wording of the email. There’s only one gym, the opening hours are:

female only: mon-Fri 9-7 and weekends 10-3
male only: mon-Friday 7-11pm and weekends 3-8

i think the email means women are welcome any other time within the women only hours.

I think your logic is backward as your first point contradicts the second - you suggest older women and intimidated by younger women and then younger women are intimidated by older women?

If you think older women are intimidated by younger women then why have the older women been banned? For their own protection?

I very much doubt that younger women are intimidated by older women - likelihood is the opposite is true when it comes to physical appearance and I can’t see the distinction between a 24 yr old and a 36yr old - both are adult.

And I doubt much “chatting up” goes on at a female only session. I might be wrong.

OP I think this rule is ageist and I would be letting them gym know that you have reported them to trading standards (and I would report them to trading standards.)

Peak gym hours are 6:30-9am and 5-8pm, so it’s entirely avoiding peak gym hours. The business sense behind this rest entirely on their clientele demographic, which you wouldn’t be aware of to the extent to declare it a ‘terrible business decision’.

Report them to Trading Standards. They can't just change their terms.

Actually, OP, why not publish their letter on your FB or Insta or X account and ask 'This can't be right, surely?' That should stir things up nicely.

So basically the ideal time to go after work is now blocked off unless you're 12-24.
I'd cancel as that is some nonsense.

It's up to them but I would leave a gym I wasn't able to use after work. I suspect that will happen there. They should allow that without penalty after changing their terms so significantly.

What are younger women finding to be the problem with women over 25?

Most gyms don't allow 12 & 13 year olds at all, let alone have sessions where they cannot be accompanied by a parent.
That's very odd

That's very strange, I wonder if they'll do the same for boys - men ?

I'd also be curious as to how many 12 to 15 Yr old girls go that often to make that age bracket worth while.
I thought most gyms you needed yo either be 15 or over or accompanied by a adult

So if peak gym hours are 5-8pm and this session for younger women is from 4-7pm, my understanding from what you’ve said is that it overlaps significantly with peak hours - I might be misunderstanding you, but you’ve said it entirely avoids peak hours.