Women and Weights: Lived Experiences of Women Within a Mixed-Gendered Gym

Abstract

The gym has the potential to be a valuable resource for adult physical activity. Yet, despite this, the gym environment remains a particularly underdeveloped area of study. Women’s gym experiences in particular is an area of research that needs a greater focus, as currently the literature tends to focus on women’s gym experiences in extreme or isolated contexts. Thus, this research sought to illuminate the female, gendered experience within a traditional, mixed gendered gym context. Through the use of unstructured life story interviews, this research illuminated the dominant gendered expectations that women perceive within the gym space and how these expectations interact with/in women’s gym use. Through this exploration this research also discussed what women perceived could be changed in order to benefit their gendered gym use.