Canada: University students debate women-only gym times

Article here. Excerpt:

'An initiative by the Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU) pushing for women-only hours at one of the two on-campus athletic facilities has some students worked up about working out.

In a Facebook post last month, the RSU laid out its case for women-only workout slots. They wrote that many women feel uncomfortable exercising in the co-ed space for reasons ranging from Muslim women who will not remove their head scarves in front of men to women who the RSU argued have to endure “societal standards of beauty.”

The campaign prompted anger online. “I’ve never even stepped foot in the Ryerson gym, but this still pisses me off. What’s next, women only library hours?” wrote one commentator on Facebook.

“We all pay the same amount... so we should all have the same opportunities to use it and all be given the same amount of available time,” wrote another on the social news website Reddit.

It’s not an entirely new idea. There is already women-only gym time at the University of Toronto, York University, Memorial University and at Ryerson’s campus pool. Ryerson already offers women a small private gym space restricted to a single studio that is sometimes booked out for other uses. The RSU would like to see a totally women-only space for regular time slots in one of two gyms.'