New scheme protecting women in gyms rolled out in Newark
Three local gyms have already signed up.
A new initiative to try and make women feel safer while at the gym is being rolled out in Newark.
So far, three local fitness organisations have signed up and will become a member of Safer Gyms once they have met the requirements.
These include NG24 Fitness, Fosse Way Crossfit, and two Active4Today leisure centres in Newark and Southwell.
The venues have received an on-site assessment which involves a review of areas such as:
- The layout of equipment and types of equipment available.
- The availability of staff and their level of engagement with members.
- The level of privacy for members taking part in classes.
- Types of signage and information on display.
It's been developed using cash secured by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Nottinghamshire.
£3 million of Home Office funding for Safer Streets projects is being spent across the County.
Caroline Henry says:
“This idea was born after one of our Safer Streets project managers had an experience in the gym that made her feel incredibly uncomfortable.
“She had noticed that whilst exercising a man in the gym had been taking pictures of her, as she could see pictures of her bright pink gym top on his phone. I’m really pleased to see this kind of behaviour is being tackled head-on via our Safer Gyms scheme.
“I know that far too often women and girls can be made to feel uncomfortable when exercising alone, gyms should be a safe space for women and not places that they are made to feel unsafe, and I’m proud that we began this innovative scheme right here in Nottinghamshire.”
“The organisations who have completed the training so far have had such a positive experience. They have taken away lots of positive changes to make to their gyms safer for women and the scheme has given their staff a higher level of alertness at spotting when women are receiving unwanted attention.”
SURVEY
An anonymous online survey was designed to gather information on women’s experiences within the fitness industry.
It was open for all of Nottinghamshire residents, with a total of 488 people responding. Of these, 135 women said they had an uncomfortable experience or interaction whilst attending the gym.
The survey asked respondents to select types of behaviours they had experienced which made them feel uncomfortable with 76% of women reporting being stared at, 20% reporting being followed, and 34% reporting having received inappropriate flirtatious comments.
As a result of these experiences, survey respondents shared what effect this behaviour had on them, with 87.5% reporting they felt like they needed to make a change after their uncomfortable experience, 32% avoiding the area in the gym where the incident took place, and 30% even choosing to change the time or day they attended the gym.
Results show that 82% of experiences were not reported to either the police or the gym, with 50% of respondents not knowing how to report incidents to their gym.
Communities Inc and Nottinghamshire Women’s Aid, who developed the training said: "Unfortunately, sexism and misogynistic behaviours surface in all types of environments, and the gym is one of those environments where it is often heightened, with 42% of women having experienced at least one form of sexual harassment or intimidation at their gym.
“It is unacceptable for women to be intimidated in the gym as a result of misogyny and sexual harassment, that is why we are pleased to be offering action to tackle this through our Stand by Her programme in conjunction with Nottinghamshire Women's Aid."
The project is starting to get nationwide attention.
Emma Dolan, a world champion kickboxer, has given her backing to the scheme and said she was shocked at how many women were affected.
“Some statistics that we saw about women and how they’ve been abused and how it can affect them, it’s crazy,” she said.
“It was powerful looking to look at certain things in the case studies on how people can abuse their power within the gym, and how we can counteract them. It’s been really beneficial.”