Do we need a women-only bit in the gym or women only evenings?

[Lehman]

My brother has been complaining because he went to his local gym and found that he couldn't use it on Tuesday evening as it was women only. My brother is quite over weight but has been doing really well with diet and exercise. The response he got when he complained about the women only thing was that women don't like all the men ogling them in the gym and so must have seperate times / areas. is this true? I confess I am not in the gym much but do we really need special women only times? Are women such delicate flowers?

How ridiculous!! If anybody is busy watching anyone else in the gym They're not working he's enough!! I'd be pissed off as I can rarely go tonthe gym and I couldn't be arsed with waiting for all sorts of groups of people I'm not finishing their work outs

I always go into the women only section of my gym which is a totally seperate room down a corridor with one of each piece of equipment and free weights.
I only used it because 9 times out of 10 I'm the only person in there, it's like a private little gym.
However if they didn't have this or if the machine I want is in use I'm perfectly happy to use the mixed area, I find looking like a sweaty mess having headphones in stops me getting chatted up

I've been to gyms with a separate section, and TBH I like it - the machines are in better nick, tend to be cleaner, tidier, and there's not some bloke groaning, huffing and puffing monopolising them. To be fair, that's because the sections I used were used a lot less because it was women only, so like Catdogcat, it was more like having a private gym.

Also meant that there were a couple of machines with specifically smaller settings for the shorties amongst us (ie me).

I've also been to gyms without, and I'm pretty confident in the gym, but men do tend to sweat, and drip, and stride in, assuming that I'm not using whatever bit of equipment, or leave ridiculously heavy weights on the machines that I then have to unload to use, or bars up to high etc. so it's a lot less convenient.

Daft tbh. I've been to women only gyms and I was happy there. I'm now at a mixed gym and I'm happy there. I've never been ogled or seen anything like that going on. Everyone is concentrating on their own workouts and if I was at gym where it was going on i'd consider it a much wider issue and not something that could simply be fixed with "women only" nights. I'd move gyms entirely and find somewhere with a different environment.

I stopped going to a gym partially because I got fed up of not being able to use any of the equipment because the young men seemed to be using it as a social club and monopolising various bits. I had no issues working out alongside the men, and I'm a fairly assertive but I just generally felt uncomfortable faced with a largish group of testosterone filled youths and a impression that wasn't a 'safe' feeling space.

I also attended women only swimming for a while at the same gym which I far preferred than mixed sessions as it was much more relaxed and I didn't get barged and kicked by men (and it was always men) who didn't seem to be able to stick to the swim lane rules. The women only sessions only started at 9pm though which was slightly too late for me so I would go 8.30 - 9.30 and have half an hour of getting pushed around and then a more fruitful 30 mins when all the 'serious' male swimmers had left.

The main reason I stopped going to the gym though was because a Lifeguard essentially shamed two young women (who appeared to have some level of learning disability) into getting out of the pool because they weren't swimming 'properly' in the lanes. That made me really angry because they never did anything about the rude male arseholes who also didn't stick to the lanes properly earlier on in the evening but obviously thought these two were easy pickings. This was in a fairly empty women only session with mainly older ladies going at a very sedate pace and they really weren't causing a problem to anyone.

If they were available I would probably always feel more comfortable attending women only sessions in the future as my experience of them so far has been mainly positive.

I would be very aggravated by a gym session that was for one gender only if I had made the effort to get to the gym.

Perhaps there is a market for gyms where women can exercise without the minority of men that ogle. I would prefer to see women only gyms and men only gyms rather than restricting the access to mixed gyms which people have paid a lot of money to join and made the effort to actually get there.

Also, there are women that ogle men in my gym as well as men that ogle women. It is a pick up joint as well.

I don't feel comfortable working out in a mixed environment; I prefer a women only space. For me that means a women only gym, however if our local gym had regular women only sessions I could get to, I'd consider using that instead.

I'd have no issues with men only times too - provided they were evenly balanced in terms of fair access (so not women only just during day/men only just after work for eg.)

I accept that preferring a women only space is my own issue not any one else's, but I'm thankful that my women only gym exists as otherwise I wouldn't use one at all.

Didn't know other gyms had single sex sessions; I may look into that as the downside to ours is it's very small, has limited equipment, and no showers.

Sounds like a poor timetabling issue OP. I would be pissed too if I'd made the effort to get to the gym/pool only do find its over 60s/under 16s/family baby swim whatever. Leisure centres have to cater for a diverse bunch of people.

I think there's a lot here
Was he told when he paid his fee?
Is there a men only night?
Are men and women paying the same fee without getting the same hours of access?

I think the gym can run their business that way but they might need to adjust fees to stay on the right side of any discrimination laws. If I pay for seven days peak time access to the gym, that's what I should get.

I would be much more likely to use the free weights if my gym had women only sessions. As it is, I haven't plucked up the confidence to use them yet, and only use the machines. I do think that if/when use them, it'll be a pretty big achievement for me (confidence-wise). I know that women do use them, and I know I probably sound a bit of a softarse, but that's they way it is.
The free weights are usually monopolised by men, unfortunately

I would be more likely to join a gym that had women-only sessions so that I wasn't laughed at or hit on.

I can understand that your brother would be angry that he wasn't warned about womens-only sessions when he joined though.

I don't agree with making a whole gym women only for an evening. It's useless in terms of fitness if that's the only night women who require segregated gyms can exercise and it's essentially discriminatory.

What would be better would be to create a women-only area within the gym (space permitting). A number of gym chains have this and it works well. If it's a small gym, then I think women members need to accept that it's not practical to segregate or find another gym.

I've used both the women-only spaces in my local gym and the main area and never had any issues with being hassled. If there are men harassing women in mixed gyms, the gym staff should deal with it, IMO.

Are people getting hit on a lot in gyms then? Maybe my workout face gives off s strong "do not bother me I'm not interested" vibe.

Article by Laura Bates
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/23/women-only-gyms-muirfield-men-male-privilege

In three years the Everyday Sexism Project has received a whopping 984 testimonies from women writing about their experiences of sexism, harassment and assault at the gym; 541 related to swimming pools.

Purple I think mine must do too. Plus I wear earphones and don't make eye contact or speak to anyone unless I'm asking about a specific piece of equipment.

I've had way more harassment when exercising outside than I ever have in the gym.

I do wonder though, and this is in no way intended to be victim-blaming, that women who have suffered harassment in a gym or pool haven't reported it to the staff for fear of being thought of as causing trouble, but then later ranted about it on social media.

I've been there myself - me and a female friend used to visit a spa where we lived and nearly without fail, there were various middle-aged men lurking and obviously leching, trying to sit too close in the jacuzzi, staring at women in the showers and just generally being creepy. I wish now we'd reported it, but we were both in our teens and thought it was just a bit pathetic and we'd just ignore it. There is literally no way I would tolerate this now.

My gym has 2 hours a week, 8-10 one evening.

It should be clearly signed or advertised to people, in case it doesn't suit their schedule, but I don't have an intrinsic issue

I've never witnessed anyone being hit on in a gym, nor had any of my RL friends seen/ experienced it. I've only ever seen it in movies not saying by it doesn't happen, but certainly not at any local gyms here.

I go to a female only gym, it has a very different feel.

By go I mean twice.

Ever.

Religious or cultural reasons aside, a percentage of women who want to use a gym will be self conscious about their appearance and prefer to exercise where men aren't present. A gym offering this service will get customers. If they didn't, they wouldn't offer it.

Yes, in an ideal world we would all be Amazons and brave and not feel self-conscious when overweight and sweaty, but until we get there, I think it is useful to have a women's only space to encourage more women to exercise and reap the health benefits.

It's only one night a week, at one particular gym. Your brother should just suck it up, go for a run or find somewhere else to train :P If the gym was inaccessible for a private hire for say a local sports team would it even be up for discussion, or would he just have adjusted?

"If the gym was inaccessible for a private hire for say a local sports team would it even be up for discussion, or would he just have adjusted?"

This.

It's only one night a week, at one particular gym. Your brother should just suck it up, go for a run or find somewhere else to train :P If the gym was inaccessible for a private hire for say a local sports team would it even be up for discussion, or would he just have adjusted?

I'm not so sure about "just suck it up". I'd be pretty pissed off with a men only session when I wanted to go and I doubt the men have to pay less for their subscription than women but there's more time that they are unable to use the gym than the women. I think it's better to have a women only area than block off the whole gym.

I hope it was advertised really clearly when he joined so at least he knew the situation.

The behaviour of some men in gyms and the sad fact that women in the UK seem more body conscious than in many if not all Western European countries means that women only sessions are something I can understand and have no objection to. There is a real issue in this country with obesity and if it gets a few more women exercising then so much the better.

It should be limited in how often, say no more than 10% of the time a gym is open. Of course anyone when joining a gym or even inquiring should be advised, as no-one should unknowingly turn up and be turned away.

I don't believe in segregation. The solution to any man who harasses, intimidates or oogles is to ban them. Otherwise it's accepting that men are entitled to behave that way and women who work out at normal times deserve to be on the recieving end of it.

Ban creeps, no segregation necessary.

Ban creeps, no segregation necessary.

I assume enough men are creeps so that the gyms can't afford to ban them if they still want to make money. So it is either lose the creeps or lose the women, or have women only hours so keep the women while not losing the creeps.

I would attend women only gym sessions I find men in the gym quite intimidating and they tend to hog the weights as well. I actually left a gym because they put the weights near the entrance which meant when I went in 15 blokes would stare at me and I felt very self conscious