Gym Membership - Ladies Only - Is this allowed?

maninthestreet

Optimist wrote: »

It is legal for the gym to provide this single sex area and I am sure the gym will use the justification that serious embarrassment is likely to occur at the presence of a person of the opposite gender.

A little extreme but you could get around it by becoming a transexual. The gym would have to allow you to use the services of whatever gender you pronounced yourself or they would be in breach of the Equality law.

Indeed - time for the OP to declare themselves a pre-operative transexual.

Darksun

Optimist wrote: »

It is legal for the gym to provide this single sex area and I am sure the gym will use the justification that serious embarrassment is likely to occur at the presence of a person of the opposite gender.

To justify the 'embarrassment' exemption, surely they will have to provide a male only area in addition to the female only area, otherwise they're discriminating against male members who might want an area free from females. From what the OP is saying the gym now has a female only area and a mixed area, no male only area.

Anyway, in short, there *could* be a claim under the Equalities Act, but I don't think anyone other than a specialist lawyer is in a position to answer authoritatively. It would certainly be an interesting case if the OP wanted to bring it forward - but probably not worth the time, effort and expenditure

T_T_2

Have you considered the possiblity of actually directing your question to the only people who can actually offer you a reduction in fees, namely Fitness First Coventry?

Nice as the people of Money Saving Expert are, I suspect that very few of them have the authority to reduce your Fitness First fees.

vikingaero

Any measure for the benefit of women is seen as positive discrimination. If men suffer as a result then that's tough boobies. Equality. Where some are more equal than others.