Bo van Maurik, 39, a mental health nurse specialist in training, has been going to gyms for twenty years. Until four years ago she exercised in mixed clubs, but after a trial lesson at Fitbody Bootcamp-Ladies only in IJmuiden she decided that she only wanted to exercise with women. She feels “less shame,” she says.
Take the time she accidentally stuffed a pair of torn pants into her gym bag. She only found out on location. When she joined a mixed gym, she had thought: what now? At this gym she was reassured: what are you worried about? We are among women, aren’t we?
Just over half of young women in the Netherlands (16-34) experienced unwanted sexual behavior during sports in the past twelve months, according to research by the Mulier Institute that will be published this Friday. But women in other age categories also suffer from it. Most cases involve unwanted staring (17 percent), whistling (14 percent) and sexually explicit jokes about the appearance of women (14 percent). Women are also told to lose weight (12 percent) and in 7 percent they are groped without consent.
The increasing popularity of the ladies only gym (exact numbers are not available, but trade association NL Actief recognizes the trend) can partly be explained by these experiences. Without men, many women feel more comfortable exercising. For example, Basic Fit introduced gyms for women and in many cities women can follow a ‘Hart for her’ training program.
Swimming pool, park or gym
For the Mulier study, 576 women who participated in sporting activities at least once in the past twelve months completed a questionnaire – a representative reflection of society. Those who were confronted with unwanted sexual behavior swam in a pool, ran in the park or exercised at a sports club or in a gym.
What is striking is the relatively high number of women with a migration background (51 percent) who reported unwanted sexual behavior. “This difference can partly be explained by the fact that this group is relatively young compared to the group without a migration background,” the report states. It also says the figures are “many times higher” than previous figures. In 2022, comparable research still involved a few percent.
Bo van Maurik says that she has “never felt uncomfortable” in mixed gyms. Her transition to the ladies only gym in IJmuiden there was more of a choice for than a choice against. “It is warmer here, freer,” she says. “The women have a close bond.”
Most women who drink tea on a weekday evening after an abdominal-buttocks-legs workout feel the same way. Not all of them have had to deal with the behavior described in the report. They are shocked that more than half of young women suffer from this. But they also realize that you don’t have to be groped or shouted at to feel unsafe as a woman while exercising.
“I recently went to pick up my son from the gym,” says 42-year-old Sümeyra Akca, who advises small and medium-sized businesses at a bank. “Then I see all those muscular guys walking around there. This energy doesn’t feel right, I thought.”
A 44-year-old single mother of Turkish descent – she does not want her name to be published NRC – says that she wore different clothes in the mixed gym she used to go to than she does now. Not leggings, but sweatpants. No top, but a loose T-shirt. A sports bra that didn’t show her nipples on cold days. “I have an E cup and I quickly feel like I’m being watched. Especially if I have to jump.”
51-year-old Aysel Avci, an employee at a drugstore, says that she worked out for years at a large fitness chain. She did ‘power pump’ there, a group lesson where you train all the muscles using weights and dumbbells. “During such a lesson, two men stood right behind me. If I had to do a squat, they could get a good look at my buttocks. Very uncomfortable.”
Until recently she ran through the dunes in IJmuiden. Until she read an article about a seventy-year-old woman who was raped by a 39-year-old man on her way to her husband in the nursing home. “That made me anxious,” she says. “That woman was just walking on the street and I was running in nature, where it can be very quiet in winter. Suppose you meet someone, I thought, then you are powerless.”
Several women at the table say that they have sometimes received comments while exercising in a mixed environment – not just from men – because they were wearing a headscarf. “It’s hot, take that thing off,” one of them was told. “What are you doing here?”, another.
Mud Masters
In the inconspicuous building at the port of IJmuiden, women with diverse cultural backgrounds play sports: Syrian, Turkish, Spanish, Portuguese, Surinamese, Antillean, Moroccan. “Native women are in the minority,” says Bo van Maurik. “It is precisely that mix of cultures that makes me like coming here. I learn a lot from it.”
The women not only play sports together, but cook for each other, organize cultural outings and participate as a team in sporting events, such as the Dam tot Damloop and the Mud Masters, an obstacle course where you have to crawl through the mud. Photos of their sporting achievements hang on the wall.
“We teach challenging classes every day of the week that make women feel free and safe,” says Hülya Dur, who founded Fitbody Bootcamp in 2020. First the women met on the street, then in a parking garage and now at two permanent locations: in IJmuiden and in a gym in Heemskerk. “A hobby that got out of hand,” the 49-year-old Tata Steel employee calls it.
Dur also knows from experience what it’s like to be stared at as a woman while exercising. “You take into account unexpected criticism or compliments from men,” she says. “You wear long pants when it’s hot. That makes it difficult to let loose while exercising.”
Dur is not surprised by the conclusions from the Mulier report. Due to the increasing attention to inappropriate behavior – for example, there were much-discussed issues in TV programs The Voice and DWDD and Ajax football club – women think more carefully about which situations make them feel good and which do not, she thinks. The popularity of gyms for women is an expression of this.
Dur is increasingly approached by women who want to join her clubs. There is no membership stop, but the classes are packed, especially those in the small branch in IJmuiden. Some women practically beg her to open a women’s gym in their hometown. Has she ever considered giving up her regular job to get a chain off the ground? She would like it, she says. But for now that remains a dream.