A women-only space is an area where only
women
A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...
(and in some cases children) are allowed, thus providing a place where they do not have to interact with
men
A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chro ...
. Historically and globally, many cultures had, and many still have, some form of female
seclusion.
Purpose and background
Women-only spaces are a form of
sex segregation
Sex segregation, sex separation, gender segregation or gender separation is the physical, legal, or cultural separation of people according to their Sex, biological sex. Sex segregation can refer simply to the physical and spatial separation by s ...
, and practices such as women-only
public toilet
A public toilet, restroom, public bathroom or washroom is a room or small building with toilets (or urinals) and sinks for use by the general public. The facilities are available to customers, travelers, employees of a business, school pupils ...
s,
women-only passenger car
Women-only passenger cars are railway or subway cars intended for women only. They are a result of sexual segregation in some societies, but also can result from attempts to reduce sexual harassment and assault such as groping.
Africa
Egypt
...
s on public transport or
women's parking space
Women's parking spaces are specially designated and identified parking spaces in parking garages and parking lots to be used by women. They are usually near exits to increase the safety of women, to facilitate parking, or to facilitate walking ...
s may be described using both terms. They are sometimes referred to as "
safe space
The term safe space refers to places "intended to be free of bias, conflict, criticism, or potentially threatening actions, ideas, or conversations". The term originated in LGBT culture, but has since expanded to include any place where a margi ...
s".
These spaces do not go without challenge.
Men's rights activists have launched lawsuits to gain access to female-only spaces, as for example ''
Stopps v Just Ladies Fitness (Metrotown) Ltd'', regarding a gym in Canada. The access of
trans women
A trans woman or a transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity, may experience gender dysphoria, and may transition; this process commonly includes hormone replacement therapy and s ...
, regardless of their
legal gender
Legal gender, or legal sex, is a sex or gender that is recognized under the law. Biological sex, sex reassignment and gender identity are used to determine legal gender. The details vary by jurisdiction.
History
In European societies, Roma ...
, is also sometimes contentious, both from an ethical and from a legal perspective. In some cases questions have been raised about the value and legitimacy of particular spaces being reserved for women.
Women's quarters and segregated societies
Many cultures have had a tradition of a separate living space for the women of a household ("women's quarters"); this becomes more elaborate the larger the house is, reaching its peak in royal palaces. The best known example is probably the
harem
Harem (Persian: حرمسرا ''haramsarā'', ar, حَرِيمٌ ''ḥarīm'', "a sacred inviolable place; harem; female members of the family") refers to domestic spaces that are reserved for the women of the house in a Muslim family. A hare ...
, a Turkish word, but similar systems existed elsewhere, and still do, in some places.
*
Andaruni
Andaruni ( fa, اندرونی) in Iranian architecture, is the inner quarter where the women lived. It has been described as ''harem'' in Arabic.
Private space
In traditional Persian residential architecture the ''andaruni'' is a part of the h ...
(in
traditional Persian residential architecture
Traditional Persian residential architecture is the architecture employed by builders and craftsmen in the cultural Greater Iran and the surrounding regions to construct vernacular houses. The art draws from various cultures and elements from bot ...
in what is now Iran)
*
Seraglio
A seraglio, serail, seray or saray (from fa, سرای, sarāy, palace, via Turkish and Italian) is a castle, palace or government building which was considered to have particular administrative importance in various parts of the former Ott ...
(Ottoman Empire)
*
Zenana
Zenana ( fa, زنانه, ur, , bn, জেনানা, hi, ज़नाना) literally meaning "of the women" or "pertaining to women", in Persian language contextually refers to the part of a house belonging to a Muslim, Sikh, or Hindu f ...
(South Asia) - hence,
Zenana missions
The zenana missions were outreach programmes established in British India with the aim of converting women to Christianity. From the mid 19th century, they sent female missionaries into the homes of Indian women, including the private areas of ...
, providing medical and educational support to segregated women
*
Purdah
Pardah or purdah (from Hindi-Urdu , , meaning "curtain") is a religious and social practice of female seclusion prevalent among some Muslim and Hindu communities. It takes two forms: physical segregation of the sexes and the requirement that wom ...
(South Asia)
*
Terem
TEREM - HOLDING JSC ( Cyrillic: ТЕРЕМ) is a state-owned company of the Bulgarian Ministry of Defence specialized in repairs, modernization and logistical support of aviation equipment, ships and vessels, armored vehicles, small arms, artiller ...
(Russia)
*
Ōoku
The refers to the women's quarters of Edo Castle, the section where the women connected to the reigning resided. Similar areas in the castles of powerful , such as the Satsuma Domain, were also referred to by this term.
History
The ''Ōok ...
(Japan)
*
Gynaeceum
In Ancient Greece, the gynaeceum ( gr, γυναικεῖον ''gynaikeion'', from Ancient Greek ''gynaikeia'' "part of the house reserved for the women"; literally "of ''or'' belonging to women, feminine") or the gynaeconitis ( ''gynaikōnitis'' ...
(Ancient Greece)
*
Anthapura
The Anthapura or Antahpura (Sanskrit ) was the royal harem of an Indian palace, the portion of king's palace where the queen and other court ladies stayed—the 'ladies' section' of the palace.
Normally, this portion of the palace would be accompa ...
or Antahpura (India)
Some societies segregate most public facilities by sex, according to their interpretation of
Islam and gender segregation; critics calls this
gender apartheid
Gender apartheid (also called sexual apartheid or sex apartheid) is the economic and social sexual discrimination against individuals because of their gender or sex. It is a system enforced by using either physical or legal practices to relegate ...
after the former South African system of racial division. The best known examples are Saudi Arabia (
Women's rights in Saudi Arabia#Sex segregation) and Iran (
Sex segregation in Iran
Sex segregation in Iran encompasses practices derived from the conservative dogma of Shiite Islam currently taking place in Iran. Most areas of the country are sex segregation, segregated by sex, except universities. In many cities, there are wome ...
,
Women's rights in Iran
During the late 20th and early 21st centuries in Iran, women's rights have been severely restricted, compared with those in most developed nations. The World Economic Forum's 2017 Global Gender Gap Report ranked Iran 140, out of 144 countries, ...
). More disputed regimes include Afghanistan (
Taliban treatment of women
During their first rule in Afghanistan (1996–2001), the Taliban were considered notorious internationally for their misogyny and violence against women. Since 1996, women were mandated to wear the burqa at all times in public. In a systematic ...
) and
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...
(ISIS).
History
The rise of
first wave feminism
First-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity and thought that occurred during the 19th and early 20th century throughout the Western world. It focused on legal issues, primarily on securing women's right to vote. The term is often used s ...
, including the long struggles for the vote (
suffrage) – for access to education and the professions (in English-speaking societies), led to various initiatives to widen women's possibilities.
* In the 1910s and 1920s, there was widespread encouragement in the United States for the establishment of ladies' lounges and rest rooms to accommodate rural women who traveled into county seats and market towns to conduct business. The
Ladies Rest Room in Lewisburg, Tennessee, may be the last free-standing one in that state still in use.
*A
ladies' ordinary was a women-only dining space which started to appear in North American hotels and restaurants from 1830, when it was socially unacceptable for women to dine in public without a male escort.
* In 1929
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device.
Woolf was born i ...
published an influential essay entitled "
A Room of One's Own
''A Room of One's Own'' is an extended essay by Virginia Woolf, first published in September 1929. The work is based on two lectures Woolf delivered in October 1928 at Newnham College and Girton College, women's colleges at the University of C ...
".
Examples
Locations, venues, and activities may allow men at certain times of the day, week, or year; for example, public baths that have some days for women and some for men. Some allow children, either girls only or both sexes. Some establishments allow men and women in areas that are physically set apart from each other. Some exist temporarily (e.g. renting space for a few hours or days).
Businesses and services
*
Women-only bank
**See also the
kitty party
In India, kitty parties are social events held as part of an informal savings club. It is a kind of party usually organized by women, and commonly held in the afternoon on a monthly basis.
''Kitty'' refers to the amount collected at the party, e ...
, an informal savings club
* Of this international
list of women's organizations
This is a list of women's organizations ordered by geography.
International
* Alliance of Pan American Round Tables – founded 1916 to foster women's relationships throughout the Americas
* Arab Feminist Union – founded 1945
* Associated Cou ...
, some have their own premises; others such as the
Women's Institute
The Women's Institute (WI) is a community-based organisation for women in the United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand. The movement was founded in Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada, by Erland and Janet Lee with Adelaide Hoodless being the ...
offer their members a women-only space for the duration of the meeting
*
Community centre
Community centres, community centers, or community halls are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole co ...
s focusing on women, such as
The Women's Building
The Women's Building is a women-led non-profit arts and education community center located in San Francisco, California, which advocates self-determination, gender equality and social justice. The four-story building rents to multiple tenants an ...
in San Francisco and
Pankhurst Centre in Manchester
*
Sex shop
A sex shop is a retailer that sells products related to adult sexual or erotic entertainment, such as sex toys, lingerie, pornography, and other related products.
An early precursor of the modern sex shop was a chain of stores set up in t ...
s catering to women, such as
Sh! Women's Erotic Emporium
*
Feminist bookstore
Feminist bookstores sell material relating to women's issues, gender, and sexuality. These stores served as some of the earliest open spaces for feminist community building and organizing.
Prior to the spread of feminist bookstores, bookselling ...
s may have women-only and mixed-sex times
*
Women-only amusement parks
*Resorts such as
SuperShe Island
*Spas (see also section on public bathing, below)
Gyms
*The Young Women's Christian Association (
YWCA
The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries.
The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swi ...
), now a global movement for education and human rights, was for many decades best known for its hostels and fitness centres, see
List of YWCA buildings
This is a list of notable YWCA buildings. YWCA buildings are prominent in many cities.
Australia
* Grand Central Hotel, a.k.a. Grand Central YWCA, Grand Hotel, Grand Central Coffee Palace, at 379 Wellington St. in Perth, Western Australia, Weste ...
*Other chains or stand-alone gyms choose to cater to females, e.g.Total Woman
Hotels and other accommodation
* some offer women-only floors
*others are the entire business (e.g. the "urban retreat" and spa the Luthan Hotel in Riyadh and Som Dona in the holiday resort of Majorca)
*
capsule hotel
Capsule hotel ( ja, カプセルホテル, kapuseru hoteru), also known in the Western world as a pod hotel, is a type of hotel developed in Japan that features many small bed-sized rooms known as capsules. Capsule hotels provide cheap, basic o ...
s in Japan
*
residential hotel
An apartment hotel or aparthotel (also residential hotel, or extended-stay hotel) is a serviced apartment complex that uses a hotel-style booking system. It is similar to renting an apartment, but with no fixed contracts and occupants can "check ...
s offered accommodation for months and in some cases years, particularly to unmarried young women
**
Barbizon Hotel for Women
The Barbizon (known since 2005 as Barbizon 63), is a building located at 140 East 63rd Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. It was for many decades a female-only residential hotel for young women who came to New York City for ...
, which opened in 1927 in Manhattan, was not the first but possibly the most famous example, described in the 2021 book ''
The Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women Free''
*purpose-built long-term
bed-sit accommodation for single working women
**e.g. those blocks built in the 1920s by the
Lady Workers' Homes Limited on the
Holly Lodge Estate
The Holly Lodge Estate is a housing estate in Highgate, north London.
Early history
Holly Lodge Estate is located on the site and grounds of a house built in 1798 by Sir Henry Tempest on the south-facing slopes of Highgate, London adjacen ...
in
Highgate
Highgate ( ) is a suburban area of north London at the northeastern corner of Hampstead Heath, north-northwest of Charing Cross.
Highgate is one of the most expensive London suburbs in which to live. It has two active conservation organisat ...
, north London.
*
Sorority house
North American fraternity and sorority housing refers largely to the houses or housing areas in which fraternity and sorority members live and work together. In addition to serving as housing, fraternity and sorority housing may also serve to ...
, for college students
Transportation
*
Women's parking space
Women's parking spaces are specially designated and identified parking spaces in parking garages and parking lots to be used by women. They are usually near exits to increase the safety of women, to facilitate parking, or to facilitate walking ...
*
Pink rickshaw
*
Women-only passenger car
Women-only passenger cars are railway or subway cars intended for women only. They are a result of sexual segregation in some societies, but also can result from attempts to reduce sexual harassment and assault such as groping.
Africa
Egypt
...
**on a train : India, Iran, Japan, UAE (rush hour only), Egypt, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Malaysia, Philippines.
** buses : Iran, Nepal
** taxis : USA (New York City), Egypt (Cairo), India (Kerala)
Women's clubs
that have or had their own premises (parallel to a
gentlemen's club), and more recently women-only restaurants and networking events
*see
List of women's club buildings as part of the US
Woman's club movement
The woman's club movement was a social movement that took place throughout the United States that established the idea that women had a moral duty and responsibility to transform public policy. While women's organizations had always been a part ...
Celebrations
Many celebrations, especially around
rites of passage
A rite of passage is a ceremony or ritual of the passage which occurs when an individual leaves one group to enter another. It involves a significant change of status in society. In cultural anthropology the term is the Anglicisation of ''rite ...
, are marked by a girl or woman and her female relatives and friends. For example, many cultures have a party before the wedding for the bride, in Western culture known as a hen night or
bachelorette party
A bachelorette party ( United States and Canada) or hen night ( UK, Ireland and Australia) is a party held for a woman (the bride or bride-to-be) who will soon be married. While Beth Montemurro concludes that the bachelorette party is modelled ...
. Parties for a pregnant woman are
baby shower
A baby shower is a party of gift-giving, drinking beers or a ceremony that has different names in different cultures. It celebrates the delivery or expected birth of a child or the transformation of a woman into a mother.
Etymology
The term ''s ...
s, usually attended by female friends and family.
Changing rooms
Places to change one's clothes, for example for leisure (at the gym, swimming pool, or beach), or for work (locker rooms at factories and hospitals), or while shopping (department store fitting rooms), are usually single-sex. Some have individual cubicles, while others provide only communal facilities, e.g. an open space with benches and lockers.
Cultural events
*
Michigan Womyn's Music Festival
The Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, often referred to as MWMF or Michfest, was a feminist women's music festival held annually from 1976 to 2015 in Oceana County, Michigan, on privately owned woodland near Hart Township referred to as "The L ...
(closed after 40th anniversary in 2015)
*
Nyansapo Festival, an Afro-feminist festival in Paris in 2017
*
Mountain Moving Coffeehouse, a weekly music night in Chicago (1974-2005)
*
Race for Life
Race for Life is a series of fundraising events, organised by charity Cancer Research UK. They involve running, jogging or walking a 5-kilometre, 10-kilometre or 'Pretty Muddy' course and raising sponsorship for doing so. The money raises funds fo ...
, a British charity event that raises money for cancer
*Marches to protest and celebrate, such as
Take Back the Night and the
Dyke March
A dyke march is a lesbian visibility and protest march, much like the original Gay Pride parades and gay rights demonstrations. The main purpose of a dyke march is the encouragement of activism within the lesbian community. Dyke marches c ...
*
Yamurikuma, a gender role reversal festival of some
Xingu tribes
*
The Fainting Club, a
supper club
A supper club is a traditional dining establishment that also functions as a social club. The term may describe different establishments depending on the region, but in general, supper clubs tend to present themselves as having a high-class image ...
described as an
old boys' club for girls
There are many other festivals, conferences, etc. that focus on women's achievements and women's issues, but allow anyone to attend, from the
Rochester Women's Rights Convention of 1848
The Rochester Women's Rights Convention of 1848 met on August 2, 1848 in Rochester, New York. Many of its organizers had participated in the Seneca Falls Convention, the first women's rights convention, two weeks earlier in Seneca Falls, a small ...
to today's
Women of the World Festival
Women of the World Festival (WOW, WOW Festival) is an annual arts and science festival based in London, that celebrates the achievements of women and girls, as well as looking at the obstacles they face across the world. As a global feminist mov ...
.
Education
* Girls' schools, i.e.
single-sex education
Single-sex education, also known as single-gender education and gender-isolated education, is the practice of conducting education with male and female students attending separate classes, perhaps in separate buildings or schools. The practice of ...
, see also
:Girls' schools
*
Women's college
Women's colleges in higher education are undergraduate, bachelor's degree-granting institutions, often liberal arts colleges, whose student populations are composed exclusively or almost exclusively of women. Some women's colleges admit male stud ...
s and universities
*
Finishing school
*
Sororities
Fraternities and sororities are Club (organization), social organizations at colleges and universities in North America.
Generally, membership in a fraternity or sorority is obtained as an Undergraduate education, undergraduate student, but conti ...
When formal education was banned by the Taliban, underground schools sprung up, such as the
Golden Needle Sewing School for writers to secretly discuss their work.
Health care
Historically, some health care services for women (particularly around childbirth) were staffed by women. As women gained increased access to education in the late nineteenth century, hospitals hired female physicians for female patients; nurses by this point were almost exclusively female.
*
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Obstetric Hospital
The Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Obstetric Hospital and its predecessor organisations provided health care to women in central London from the mid-Victorian era. It was named after Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, one of Britain's first female phys ...
is named after one of Britain's first female physicians
*
London School of Medicine for Women
The London School of Medicine for Women (LSMW) established in 1874 was the first medical school in Britain to train women as doctors. The patrons, vice-presidents, and members of the committee that supported and helped found the London School of Me ...
, the first medical school to train women as doctors
During
second-wave feminism
Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity that began in the early 1960s and lasted roughly two decades. It took place throughout the Western world, and aimed to increase equality for women by building on previous feminist gains.
...
, health activists set up
feminist health centers A feminist health center is an independent, not-for-profit, alternative medical facility that primarily provides gynecological health care. Many feminist health centers were founded in the 1970s as part of the women's health movement in the United ...
, particularly in the United States. Some places are for women from one background, such as the
Native American Women's Health Education Resource Center
The Native American Women's Health Education Resource Center (NAWHERC) is a nonprofit organization that provides health resources to Native American women and also advocates for women's health, reproductive choices, economic issues and land and wa ...
. Some holistic care centres are for mothers and their children, such as
Nkosi's Haven
Nkosi's Haven is an NGO in the Johannesburg, South Africa area that offers residential, holistic care and support for mothers and their children whose lives have been impacted by HIV/AIDS. Nkosi's Haven also provides support for orphans, HIV/AIDS ...
in South Africa.
Land and shelter
![Famille](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Famille.jpg)
*
Womyn's land, stemming from
separatist feminism
Feminist separatism is the theory that feminist opposition to patriarchy can be achieved through women's separation from men.Christine Skelton, Becky Francis, ''Feminism and the Schooling Scandal'', Taylor & Francis, 2009 ,p. 104 Because much o ...
of the 1970s, e.g.
Amazon Acres in Australia
**A precursor to this is the
Woman's Commonwealth, founded in Texas in the late 1870s by a women's bible study group
* Anti-war activism such as
Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp
Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp was a series of protest camps established to protest against nuclear weapons being placed at RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire, England. The camp began on 5 September 1981 after a Welsh group, Women for Life ...
in the UK and
Seneca Women's Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice
The Seneca Women's Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice was a women-only peace camp formed to protest the scheduled deployment of Cruise and Pershing II missiles before their suspected shipment from the Seneca Army Depot to Europe in the f ...
in the US
*
Umoja, Kenya
Umoja Uaso ("unity" in Swahili, the Uaso Nyiro is a nearby river), is a village in Kenya. The village, founded in 1990, is an all-female matriarch village located near the town of Archers Post in Samburu County, from the capital, Nairobi. I ...
, a village of women and children fleeing domestic violence
*
Jinwar Jinwar is a village for women and children in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (Rojava). Its construction began on 25 November 2016, during the Syrian Civil War. Construction of the houses of the villages began in 2017, and i ...
, Syria, a village for women without a husband and their children
*
Women's shelter
A women's shelter, also known as a women's refuge and battered women's shelter, is a place of temporary protection and support for women escaping domestic violence and intimate partner violence of all forms. The term is also frequently used to ...
, a place of temporary accommodation for women fleeing domestic violence, e.g.
Vancouver Rape Relief & Women's Shelter
Vancouver Rape Relief & Women's Shelter is Canada's longest running rape crisis center. The shelter, located in Vancouver, British Columbia, was established in 1973 and has operated a radical feminist, feminist Transitional living, transition hous ...
* Some
homeless shelters
Homeless shelters are a type of homeless service agency which provide temporary residence for homeless individuals and families. Shelters exist to provide residents with safety and protection from exposure to the weather while simultaneously re ...
are just for women, e.g.
Rosie's Place
Rosie’s Place is a sanctuary for poor and homeless women located in Boston, Massachusetts.
History
It was founded in 1974 by Kip Tiernan as the first shelter specifically for homeless women in the United States. It has evolved from providin ...
* Most
rape crisis center
Rape crisis centers (RCCs) are community-based organizations affiliated with the anti-rape movement that work to help victims of rape, sexual abuse, and sexual violence. Central to a community's rape response, RCCs provide a number of services, s ...
s
Lesbian services
* Cruises and vacation resorts such as those operated by
Olivia Travel
Olivia Travel is a travel company that sells cruises and resort vacations marketed towards lesbian customers. It was founded by Judy Dlugacz in 1973 as a women's record label, Olivia Records. It offered its first all-woman cruise in 1990 and rema ...
*
Lesbian bar
A lesbian bar (sometimes called a "women's bar") is a drinking establishment that caters exclusively or predominantly to lesbian women. While often conflated, the lesbian bar has a history distinct from that of the gay bar.
Significance
Les ...
s such as the now-closed
Candy Bar
A candy bar is a type of candy that is in the shape of a bar. The most common type of candy bar is the chocolate bar, including both bars made of solid chocolate and combination candy bars, which are candy bars that combine chocolate with othe ...
in London and the now-closed
The Lexington Club
The Lexington Club, often referred to as The Lex, was a dive bar, primarily catered towards queer women, in the Mission District in the American city of San Francisco, California. It was recognized as one of the central landmarks for LGBTQ cultu ...
in San Francisco
*
June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives
* ''
Lesbian Connection
''Lesbian Connection'' (''LC'') is an American grassroots network forum publication "for, by and about lesbians". Founded in 1974 by the Lesbian feminism, lesbian-feminist collective Ambitious Amazons, the magazine is run by the Elsie Publishing I ...
'' network forum
*
Lesbian Herstory Archives
The Lesbian Herstory Archives (LHA) is a New York City-based archive, community center, and museum dedicated to preserving lesbian history, located in Park Slope, Brooklyn. The Archives contain the world's largest collection of materials by and a ...
Menstruation
Some
menstrual taboo
There are many cultural aspects surrounding how societies view menstruation. Different cultures view menstruation in different ways. The basis of many conduct norms and communication about menstruation in western industrial societies is the bel ...
s require a woman to stay at home, or avoid certain places such as temples, but other cultures assign a particular place to segregate herself from her community, for example the ''
chhaupadi'' (menstrual huts) of Nepal today, or ''
The Red Tent'', a fictionalised version of Old Testament-era customs. The anthropologist Wynne Maggi describes the communal ''bashali'' (large menstrual house) of women in the
Kalasha Valley (northwestern Pakistan) as their 'most holy place', respected by men and serving as women's all-female organizing centre for establishing and maintaining gender solidarity and power.
The
seclusion of girls at puberty
The seclusion of girls at puberty has been practised in societies around the world, especially prior to the early 20th century. In such cultures, girls' puberty held more significance than boys' due to menstruation, the girl's potential for giving ...
(i.e.
menarche) is another such custom.
Military, policing, and prisons
*Some countries operate or operated separate services for women, such as the UK's
Women's Royal Air Force
The Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF) was the women's branch of the Royal Air Force. It existed in two separate incarnations: the Women's Royal Air Force from 1918 to 1920 and the Women's Royal Air Force from 1949 to 1994.
On 1 February 1949, the ...
, see
:All-female military units and formations
*
Women's police station Women's police stations (also units or offices) – es, Comisaría de la Mujer, pt, Delegacia da mulher – are police stations specializing in crimes with female victims. They were first introduced in 1985 in Brazil and are numerous in Latin Amer ...
* The
incarceration of women
This article discusses the incarceration of women in correctional facilities. As of 2013 across the world, 625,000 women and children were being held in penal institutions, and the female prison population was increasing in all continents.< ...
is in most countries in single-sex prisons, or female-only wings within larger men's prisons, see
:Women's prisons
Motherhood and lactation
The
lactation room
A lactation room (or lactorium) is a private space where a nursing mother can use a breast pump. The development is mostly confined to the United States, which is unique among developed countries in providing minimal maternity leave. Historian J ...
is a modern, mostly American phenomenon, designed for using electric
breast pump
A breast pump is a mechanical device that Lactation, lactating women use to milking, extract milk from their breasts. They may be manual devices powered by hand or foot movements or automatic devices powered by electricity.
History
On June ...
s and refrigerating the expressed milk. In many countries, spaces for women to nurse their babies can be known as breastfeeding rooms or nursing areas. The period of
postpartum confinement was traditionally a time for new mothers to learn to care for their infant from older and more experienced women.
Places to wash and swim
![Fourneau St-Michel - Lavoir (Saint-Remy)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Fourneau_St-Michel_-_Lavoir_%28Saint-Remy%29.jpg)
Public nudity is in many cultures restricted to single-sex groups.
Public baths
Public baths originated when most people in population centers did not have access to private bathing facilities. Though termed "public", they have often been restricted according to gender, religious affiliation, personal membership, and other cr ...
may separate men and women by time or by space.
*
Turkish bath
A hammam ( ar, حمّام, translit=ḥammām, tr, hamam) or Turkish bath is a type of steam bath or a place of public bathing associated with the Islamic world. It is a prominent feature in the culture of the Muslim world and was inherited ...
, ''hammam'', see especially its
function as a gendered social space
*
Mikveh
Mikveh or mikvah (, ''mikva'ot'', ''mikvoth'', ''mikvot'', or (Yiddish) ''mikves'', lit., "a collection") is a bath used for the purpose of ritual immersion in Judaism to achieve ritual purity.
Most forms of ritual impurity can be purif ...
, the
Jewish ritual bath
Specific examples include:
*
Frauenbad Stadthausquai, a public bath built in Switzerland in the late 19th century for women, and which still operates as such
*
Hampstead Heath Ladies' Pond, a reservoir in a London park
*
McIver Women's Baths, also known as McIver Ladies' Baths, in New South Wales, Australia. It is a council-owned, late C19 heritage structure.
*
La Femme (beach)
La Femme ( ar, شاطئ لافام) is a women-only beach in Marina, Egypt
Marina, also Marina El Alamein ( ar, مارينا العلمين ), ancient ''Leukaspis'' or ''Antiphrae'', is an upscale resort town catering mainly to the Egyptia ...
, Egypt
In many cultures, laundry was seen as "women's work", so the village wash-house (''
lavoir
A lavoir (wash-house) is a public place set aside for the washing of clothes. Communal washing places were common in Europe until industrial washing was introduced, and this process in turn was replaced by domestic washing machines and by laun ...
'') acted as a space for women to gather and talk together as they washed clothes.
Religious festivals
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Attukal Pongala
Attukal Pongala is a 10-day religious festival celebrated at the Attukal Bhagavathy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram in the Indian state of Kerala. On the ninth day there is a huge gathering of millions of women on the temple surroundings. These wom ...
- Hindu festival in
Kerala
Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
*
Thesmophoria
The Thesmophoria ( grc, Θεσμοφόρια) was an ancient Greek religious festival, held in honor of the goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone. It was held annually, mostly around the time that seeds were sown in late autumn – though ...
in Ancient Greece
*
Jivitputrika
*
Karva Chauth
Karwa Chauth is a festival celebrated by Hindu women of Northern and Western India on the fourth day after Purnima (a full moon) in the month of Ashwin. Like many Hindu festivals, Karwa Chauth is based on the lunisolar calendar which accounts f ...
, celebrated by Hindu women in Northern India
Religious places
*
Women's mosques
Women's mosques exist around the world, with a particularly rich tradition in China. As Islam has principles of segregating the sexes at times, many places of worship provide a dedicated prayer space for women within the main building, but in a ...
, which have existed for centuries in China; in the 21st century, new examples have been created around the world
*More generally,
the women's space in most mosques, see
Gender separation in mosques
*
Gender separation in Judaism, as for example the ''
mechitza
A ''mechitza'' ( he, מחיצה, partition or division, pl.: , ) in Judaism, is a partition, particularly one that is used to separate men and women.
The rationale in halakha (Jewish law) for a partition dividing men and women is derived from ...
'' used to demarcate women's space in a synagogue
*
Convent
A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglic ...
, the home of Christian nuns
*
Double monastery
A double monastery (also dual monastery or double house) is a monastery combining separate communities of monks and of nuns, joined in one institution to share one church and other facilities. The practice is believed to have started in the East ...
, with separate space for monks (men) and nuns (women)
*
Beguinage, all-women accommodation in the Low Countries (Belgium and the Netherlands)
Sports
Many amateur and most
professional sports
In professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, participants receive payment for their performance. Professionalism in sport has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larg ...
are segregated by sex.
Toilets
In almost all countries,
public toilet
A public toilet, restroom, public bathroom or washroom is a room or small building with toilets (or urinals) and sinks for use by the general public. The facilities are available to customers, travelers, employees of a business, school pupils ...
s are segregated by sex.
See also
*
Radical feminism
Radical feminism is a perspective within feminism that calls for a Political radicalism, radical re-ordering of society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts, while recognizing that women's experiences are al ...
*
Right to privacy
The right to privacy is an element of various legal traditions that intends to restrain governmental and private actions that threaten the privacy of individuals. Over 150 national constitutions mention the right to privacy. On 10 December 194 ...
*
Voyeurism
Voyeurism is the sexual interest in or practice of watching other people engaged in intimate behaviors, such as undressing, sexual activity, or other actions of a private nature.
The term comes from the French ''voir'' which means "to see". ...
*
Womyn
''Womyn'' is one of several alternative political spellings of the English word ''women'', used by some feminists. There are other spellings, including ''womban'' (a reference to the womb or uterus) or ''womon'' (singular), and ''wombyn'' or ''w ...
*
Womyn-born womyn
*
Separate spheres
Terms such as separate spheres and domestic–public dichotomy refer to a social phenomenon within modern societies that feature, to some degree, an empirical separation between a domestic or private sphere and a public or social sphere. This o ...
*
:Lesbian events
*
:Sex segregation
*
:Women's conferences
*
:Women's organizations
*
:Women's events
*
:Women's festivals
*
:Women's marches
References
Further reading
*
*
*
External links
Women-only space
{{Feminism
Feminist terminology
Sex segregation
Women-related neologisms