The Hopkins Recreation Department, led by Department Head Anne Irving, recently conducted a survey among Hopkins female students to evaluate support to create female-only hours in the O'Connor Recreation Center. The responses to Irving's survey of 100 graduate and undergraduate women were polarized.
The survey was issued after Muslim women at Harvard University pushed for a similar policy last year. The women said they needed the special hours to maintain a sense of decency integral to their faith.
Women at Hopkins who were in favor of the female-only hours gave multiple reasons for supporting the new policy, citing religious values and saying that they would just feel more comfortable working out in a same-sex environment.
Critics of this proposed policy change argued that female-only hours would discriminate against men and make working out inconvenient. Others argued that female-only hours would change the Recreation Center's social dynamic.
However, Recreation Department Head Anne Irving noted an additional issue that might prompt a future policy change, also involving the Recreation Center's demographics.
"We just eyeball where the men and the women tend to be. There are much fewer women who go to the weight room, for example," Irving pointed out.
Additionally, "Men are less frequently seen in the drop-in classes, and it's pretty equal at the rock wall. We're not going to gear any fitness area to one gender specifically, but we want to have all of these areas available for everyone," Irving said.
In an attempt to even out this difference, this semester the Recreation Center will offer a special class, Women in the Weight Room, to help instruct women who might have been intimidated by lifting weights and involve them in a fitness area typically dominated by a male majority.
Irving pointed out that the class will take place in the weight room without closing it to anyone else who wants to lift weights.
Irving said that additional surveys will be issued in regards to female-only hours, should the interest arise.
