By Faye McGinty
It’s a no brainer; common sense; obvious. Give women what they want and they will come flocking to your door.
In our report, Leisure Centres – Putting women and girls at risk, we provide evidence that most leisure centres are badly failing half the population.
WRN members spend hours of their spare time talking to the public in their local towns and cities. Among the women they speak to, a hot topic is the appearance of ‘gender neutral’ (i.e. mixed sex) changing rooms in general, and specifically the recent drive for new and refurbished leisure centres to have village changing areas where everyone wanders about together, moving between universal changing cubicles and lockers and with shared open plan showers. This sex de-segregation is deeply unpopular and women have stopped swimming as a result. What a terrible shame.
It was these heart-breaking conversations with women who used to love swimming, but now feel too vulnerable in new village-style open changing rooms, that led to the question – how many of the UK’s leisure centres still provide single-sex changing facilities? To find the answer, WRN members used a tried-and-trusted method of extracting information from public bodies - Freedom of Information requests.
The result:
In all areas of the UK, around 30% of local authorities provide
no single sex changing or showering facilities for pool users.
Why are mixed sex changing areas so unpopular?
It isn’t acceptable to brush aside women’s instinctive concerns about a lack of privacy and dignity with the snide condescension that they are being prudish, and “why not be more like continental Europe?”. There have been far too many cases of women and children being targeted by voyeurs and sex predators to ignore the fact that open, mixed sex changing rooms are a bad idea. These dangers must be taken more seriously by Sport England who are the main source of planning and design advice for pools and changing rooms in leisure centres.
If the Government wants to encourage women and girls into sustainable, healthy habits and increased exercise, there must be suitable facilities and opportunities. Removing sex-segregated facilities will only undermine this laudable objective.
Swimming is a low impact form of aerobic exercise that is good for everyone. And it is particularly beneficial for people who struggle with joint and mobility problems or health issues that make higher impact activities impossible. Shouldn’t Councils and Leisure Centre operators be doing their best to provide this opportunity for women and girls?
Of course they should! But clearly leisure centres are not doing their best for women and girls who want to go swimming.
Women-only swimming sessions
Another significant barrier is sharing the pool with men. For some women, it feels uncomfortable when only partially dressed in a thin, skimpy, unnecessarily clingy layer of polyester. Others are dealing with previous trauma, or have religious or cultural reasons for wanting a female-only space. It may just be that women want to enjoy their freedom away from the male gaze, and why not?
The WRN Leisure Centre report also reveals that the majority of women in England, Wales and Scotland have no access to women-only swimming sessions. In Northern Ireland there are none at all.
During the FOI process, it became clear that some leisure centres have trialled a women-only session but they were not successful and abandoned. While leisure centres should not be profit-driven, they do understandably have to cover costs. But how much of the lack of success is down to mixed sex changing areas or poor marketing?
When Women-only means Mixed Sex
A shocking aspect of this investigation was the discovery that the majority of leisure centres offering women-only swimming sessions are doing so under false pretences.
In England, Wales and Scotland,
only 28 of the 139 women-only swimming sessions
exclude males who identify as women.
Some of us will not be entirely surprised by these statistics, and while many people are starting to appreciate the consequences of self-identification of males into female-only spaces, others are still to find out that their lives are directly impacted by guidance that no longer recognises the definition of ‘women’ as one that relates to biological reality.
Relatively few leisure centres provided a specific policy on the admission of men who identify as women into their women-only swim sessions.
Not only are women being denied opportunities to go swimming free from the male gaze and get changed in safety with privacy and dignity, they are being deceived when the opportunity arises.
WRN demands change
Local Authorities plans and guidance provided by the Sports Councils of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales must prioritise safeguarding and provide adequate risk assessments and public consultation for any village-style changing rooms.
All service policies must protect the safety, dignity and privacy of women and girls.
Local Authority and leisure centre staff should receive training in the Equality Act 2010 so they understand that women and girls have a legal right to single-sex facilities.
Sessions that are advertised as women only or girls only must be clear that they only accept females using a definition based on sex.
One outcome of this investigation is the lack of a specific policy for single-sex leisure centre services, or the quality of the policy. The operators Everyone Active appeared to develop their ‘inclusive’ policy as the FOI campaign progressed, and the UKActive policy, which relies on consistency ‘with the gender in which they present’, was quoted on a number of occasions.
The major operators have policies that are vague at best
The only policy that was clear and referred to legal sources was a statement on Single Sex Provision from Chelmsford City Council (CC) which included guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the Equality Act 2010 that allows the provision of separate or single-sex services in certain circumstances, including the possibility to exclude, modify or limit access to those with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment.
The statement from Chelmsford CC points out that facilities are permitted to discriminate on the grounds of low participation, citing the various schemes aimed at increasing participation of women and girls in sport and physical activity, tackling barriers due to religious and cultural beliefs, lack of confidence, body image issues and fear of judgement (particularly relevant in gym and pool environments), privacy and decency concerns, as well as sexual harassment and intimidation when dressed in clothes suitable for that activity, such as swimwear. This is a workable blueprint for all leisure centre operators and we will be sharing recommendations for lawful policies in a campaign to improve this environment for women and girls.
Emma Hardy has started legal proceedings against David Lloyd clubs based on their service provisions under the Equality Act 2010. Following protracted communications with David Lloyd management, they failed to satisfactorily answer Emma’s simple question "Does our family membership include the prospect of our 11 and 13 year old daughters being naked in front of and alongside, naked men whilst in the female changing room?" The claim is of indirect discrimination against women who believe that sex is binary and immutable, and breach of contract; they are misleading their customers by allowing members to access changing rooms according to their “gendered appearance”, rendering the meaning of signage stating ‘Female’ changing rooms as, in fact, ‘Mixed sex’ changing rooms.
David Lloyd follow UKActive guidance on Transgender Access which relies on frontline staff making a subjective assessment on whether the appearance of a male is “consistent with the gender in which they present” and therefore sufficiently acceptable to be allowed entry into single-sex space when they arrive at a leisure facility, or as a result of “issues or concerns”.
The outcome of this case, which looks likely to go to court in the summer of 2025, will be interesting and is likely to set much needed legal precedence on the provision of female-only changing areas.
Finally, a request
Get in touch with us with your stories about swimming pools, changing rooms and leisure centre services so that we can show councils what women and girls have to deal with when using their facilities. We will of course protect your anonymity.
Contact us at sports@womensrights.network.
Thank You.
