The campaign for a women’s-only gym hour at Carleton has gotten space in Carleton’s Athletics Centre for a women’s-only fitness hour, which will be offered three times a week, according to the Athletics website.
This dedicated fitness time, which launched on Feb. 6, will be offered in addition to the paid women’s-only classes and sports already offered on campus.
Ashley Courchene, Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) vice-president (student services), said he is happy with what the campaign has been able to accomplish so far.
“What our survey initially showed . . . was an overwhelming support for women’s gym hours,” he said. “I think with the space that is created here, it’s a good step forward and I just want to commend all the people who were involved in that.”
Jennifer Brenning, Carleton’s Athletics director, said the hour will be run independently, but that Athletics is in the process of hiring student program managers for women’s-only fitness.
Courchene said the program currently does not include a women’s-only gym hour in the Athletics gym due to facility limitations.
“Initially, Athletics did sort of express their concerns over a lack of resources and lack of money and they said this was sort of an obstacle to full implementation of a women’s hour in the gym . . . but they were like, ‘well we’re open to see what we can do,’ ” he said.
This is the latest development in the women’s-only gym hour campaign, which was launched in November 2016 to address inequalities faced by women in the co-ed gym facility at Carleton.
The campaign was led by CUSA’s Womyn’s Centre, in partnership with the Carleton University Muslim Students’ Association (CUMSA), the Rideau River Residence Association, and the Graduate Students’ Association.
The initiative itself was not without opposition. Following the circulation of the original survey, a petition was posted on Change.org against the campaign. Campaign posters were also vandalized on campus.
Despite these challenges, Courchene said the success of the campaign proves that a bulk of the student body was in favour.
“I don’t think there was a lot of backlash but there was just a loud minority who were opposed to it,” he said. “We had a lot of silent supporters, I mean the data in our survey sort of showed that.”
Brenning said although she cannot speculate on participation rates yet, people have been using the classes. She said she hopes Athletic’s new website, which will be launching in the spring, will help boost the numbers they are already seeing.
“It was very challenging to find all the programs that we did offer for women’s-only and . . . what we would like to do is have a schedule of all women’s-only opportunities really visible,” she said.
Courchene said he hopes the program will expand in the near future.
“I would like to see other things that we’ve sort of discussed with Athletics,” he said. “I know other universities, they have [a women’s-only gym hour] going on no problem, but like I said, it is time, space and financial resources that are sort of the limitations.”
– Photo by Angela Tilley
