Women only activities/events

There are a range of women only groups in Denmark, are they breaking the law? Link, les amis Copenhagen, , etc.

Allira A lot of Men's Sheds have female members.

I’m happy to see women only as well as men only clubs/meetings etc, many people need , due to various reasons, DV and SA for instance to avoid the opposite sex in social situations, I see nothing wrong with that continuing, as some have mentioned the Supreme Court ruling makes things clear.

Being widowed I have been looking at women only holidays as I feel that it would be a more relaxing sort of 'safe' (for want of a better word) place for me right now. I imagine there are plenty of widowers who might feel the same way after losing a partner of many years.
Many years ago I would have been one of the many complaining about these men only clubs but not anymore.

I am a member of a Men's Shed along with 19 other females!

I think you'll find that certain religions require female segregation and as you say, we were going in that direction once. I'll leave it at that!

It’s 2026 and we are debating about whether or not women have historically been oppressed by men? And in need of safe places to go. Not just to knit or sew but to develop and participate in ways that they have been denied due to family life or disadvantage. It depends on what the group is for I would say and reasons why one wants to take part. Transition houses exist due to ongoing male violence, women go missing, Trump gets the vote, Epstein files are buried. Male dominance and their rage that it is slipping away is getting so old. There are female enablers yes, and women who benefit from their husbands aggression with its attendant privileges, and some may have internalized the aggressor. Women are still working out how to share power with men and this isn’t man hating. It is living through the history of the world and finding equality. Oh, plus, those immigrant women mentioned - they are deserving of safe places to be with other women and to find acceptance no matter why they come.

Cossy

I kind of get what the OP is saying.

I have no issue with single sex activities or events or clubs, so long as the purpose of such clubs isn’t solely existing to exclude the opposite sex from work or other important decision making activities or to use such groups to the detriment of the opposite sex.

Stag and hen parties are prime examples of social occasions designed to be single sex, though I know they sometimes are not.

I agree with this, it's a very good comment and makes the point that I was trying to write.
Men-only clubs/activities, women-only clubs/activities and clubs/activities for everyone seems like a fair mix to me.

4allweknow

I am a member of a Men's Shed along with 19 other females!

That'll teach me to talk through my Arras !......
🤣🤣🤣😊💐

4allweknow

I am a member of a Men's Shed along with 19 other females!

No longer a Men's Shed then is it? It's a community shed or a mixed sex shed. I do hope the men were consulted on how they felt about the change and that they were unanimously in agreement.

I really cannot understand the mentality that thinks all groups should be mixed sex with very few exceptions. What's so wrong with wanting to spend time with only members of your own sex? Why does it agitate some so much? When governments get involved it becomes quite draconian and raises red flags for me.

Allira

Allira

Shifting the dynamic, yes definitely that’s why I like mixed groups you don’t get the men complaining about women or women complaining about men, most of which is just bitching on both sides

😲 David1949 if you've never been to an all-female group, you may not realise that we would never, ever, bitch about men! The very thought!

Ps we have more lofty things to discuss anyway 😁

Years ago, when I was the leader of one the "Gransnet Local" websites and groups and trying to publicise it in all the social groups of which I was then a member, I gave a very short talk about Gransnet. I spoke about all the various separate(ish) forum topics and what interesting things we talked about, and how wide-ranging and well-informed the chat was, from political discussions to household maintenance to relationships with adult children and grandchildren. I added that there were also men in the mix, One of the men's immediate reaction was to declare scornfully that he wasn't interested in a lot of women going on about their grandchildren, so he wouldn't be joining. Perhaps he would be happier in men-only activities/events where he would never accidentally come across - shock horror - conversations about relationships., and women would be spared having all their discussions considered to be only about such things,

Nice one Elegran

Plenty are thinking that even if they know its not quite the done thing to say so.

Ex husband (the clue is in the "Ex" as he was coercively abusive, but I don't think it necessarily takes that)

frequently claimed that there was not such thing as women often having our own ways of talking together and certainly the idea - gasp - we might talk ..or even joke...about...men.

As a leader of a Rainbow Guide group, my stance had always been that if a child comes through the door looking and acting like a little girl, then I would not question their gender - I am not asking for a birth certificate or look in their underwear am I? And yes we have some tomboys

BUT, For a while, I was picking up my grandson of the same age from school. If dad was late, he would come with me for a short while, maybe 5 or 10 minutes. I can say honestly that the whole dynamic of the room changed. His natural, male, assumption that he had the right to have his say, to choose was always present (I must admit he is a charismatic child). The girls would automatically follow his lead. Without him they would discuss and choose for themselves.

Discussions with a tomboy mum when DD complained that she had been asked to be more polite, to not shout over others. Mum said she was more lively and did like to run around more - we suggested that she might like to try cubs, which she did. Within weeks she was asking to come back, complaining that the boys would not let her speak, were very noisy, and she never got to choose because they grabbed and jumped in (pretty much what she had been doing with us) She came back and was a dream because she had learned to share and value being allowed to speak and choose.

What I think is that the issue is different for our young than it is for adult groups. Men and even adult transitioners have grown up with an automatic right to have their say, to have what they want (how many even think that being late home means their wives have to take up the slack, how many would move away with their wife's career for example, how many regard their domestic activities as anything other than "helping out"). Listen to the transgender athletes telling everyone how unfair that they cannot compete with unfair physical advantage - their rights over ours is such a male thinking.

Am I the only one who thought that Theresa May and Liz Truss got a raw deal? Elect wallys like David Cameron and immediately the majority follow his lead, and provide support; elect a woman and they all stood back, some to do nothing and many to sabotage. Not sure that Kemi is getting much help either, bet she is replaced before the next election.

So yes, if we are to encourage stronger women, have the right to a space where we have reasoned discussions that are listened to, then we need to make those spaces.

But we need to start bringing our girls up from knee high not to 'please' with cakes, listening, being 'mamas', 'girlies' etc etc. Does this go against the natural tendencies to nurture? I don't see a crowd of blokes doing yoga, attending baking classes, just like I don't see a lot of women putting up scaffolding, and humping bricks around. There are the odd few now and then. Where I live we have one female bus driver. She drives a huge double decker and spends time at the traffic lights looking at her painted nails or admiring her hair in the huge mirror. She drives that bus like a devil possessed. I was really scared. Perhaps we just all need to stand up for ourselves as people and not as women or men but make sure we set an example and get heard that we won't tolerate being treated as 'audience'.

I’m all for mixed groups and gatherings but I’m not really happy about men being part of Gransnet.com (sorry) but I think it limits female disclosures

Duvetdiva

I’m all for mixed groups and gatherings but I’m not really happy about men being part of Gransnet.com (sorry) but I think it limits female disclosures

I may limit what I say due to the personality of a person but I will never limit what I say because of their gender.

There are no men only Probus groups left in our part of Australia. I think there may be a few in Queensland. Women outnumber men in both the groups I am in, about 2 to 1.

Duvetdiva

I’m all for mixed groups and gatherings but I’m not really happy about men being part of Gransnet.com (sorry) but I think it limits female disclosures

Anyone at all who can access the internet is able to read all the female disclosures on Gransnet just by searching on Google or other search engine for a keyword like "menopause" or "orgasm" or whatever. Posts on this site come up in the net search result lists in exactly the same way as ones on any other website or social media site.

They don't have to join and make their presence known to read the forum posts, as it is not a private site. At this moment dozens of men, with all kinds of motives, could be reading this thread, and all the others. However, we are all anonymous, unless we have put anything into our posts which identifies us or our addresses or personal contact details which would make it possible to get closer. It is up to us to observe our own anonymity.

To send dodgy private emails to a member's GN postbox someone would have to join. Those men who join are almost all there for honest reasons. and the moderators know they are there and can ban anyone who is found to have ulterior motives.

I don't think it is a good thing to divide up the sexes rigidly. Some men like to chat, some women don't. There are many different viewpoints among the GN members, and men have as many different political and social views as women, and as many insights to offer.

We can't complain about how women have not been listened to for too long and then refuse to listen to men. As long as they - both sexes - express those views politely and reasonably, and don't turn the conversations into polarised slanging matches, as so often happens when internet posters are anonymous and think they are free to be as hurtful as they want, the exchange of those views adds to the understanding between one another.

We may even be contributing to the process of civilising those males who are still stuck in the toxic masculinity trap, by exposing them to the experience of actually communicating with women as sentient beings, not just as a decorative but alien species.

Sorry but I am not here to civilise men, I am not their mum.

So don't. No-one is asking you to do anything you don't want to. If you don't want to reply to a post by a man, scroll by and find a different conversation to engage in.

I think the idea that women should be a civilising influence on men's behaviour is in itself quite sexist, so I try to challenge that view.

I agree - apart from of course the men we are close to if they are minor belittling or offensive but not necessarily aware of it but regularly fall into the hopeless trap of trying to raise awareness.
People, men all around us are still abusive or worse towards women, wake up, it's not all nicey nice.

I don't think it is possible to make GN/MN a female only space but the fact that MN in particular is predominantly female has been immensely beneficial both for the women on the site and I would argue politically.

You would rather there were two populations divided by whether they possess an x or a y chromosome, which each treated the other as though they were from another planet, and never discussed any serious matters with each other? Never to cross-fertilise their opposing cultures, never to know, for instance, the different perspectives they have inherited on subjects like war and peace, risk and safety, rape, financial responsibilities, emotional stability?

Gransnet will always be predominantly female, until and unless many men stop seeing "women's talk" as 99% cosy domestic or gossipy chitchat, but that is not a reason to ban all men from it.

My tongue-in-cheek final paragraph was clearly taken as a mission statement by some!