Do We Need Women-Only Spaces?

All-female bars, gyms and offices are popping up, yet some think they’ve no place in modern society

- Fiona Kinloch, Catherine Cooper

No

‘We don’t need cliquey woman caves’

Catherine Cooper, 48, is a journalist. She lives in the South of France with her husband and two teenage children.

There is absolutely no need for female-only spaces beyond changing rooms and toilets. This is the 21st century and women are not feeble flowers who need to be protected and hidden away from men.

Surely the more we head towards ‘girls only’ gyms, bars or, worse, work places, the worse sexual discrimination is going to get? Do we really want to be living in a Jane Austen-style world where the ladies withdraw to one room to chat over tea while the men get on with ‘manly pursuits’, or retire to the ‘smoking room’ to put the world to rights?