Gender Segregation At the Gym (Part 2)

Women tend to out number the men in the cardio room. I noticed a lot of variety among women in the cardio room. There were no mirrors present I counted about 12 televisions in this area. The people in the cardio room, the women in particular, seemed to all be there alone. None of them engaged with one another and all of them had ear phones in there ears while they worked out. There also was no music played out loud on the sound system. All of the machines were placed in a row following the same machine throughout until the next line of different machines appeared. There were no walls or sections that ultimately divided the cardio machine in anyway. The weight room however, had two walls that divided the weight machines from weights in general. The one thing that stood out the most in the weight room, was all of the mirrors present. Everywhere you turned there was a mirror. I found it fascinating that the weight room required walls to separate the machines from regular weights. The weight room of course consisted of more men then women but the women that were present within the weight room tended to use the weight machines more then just the regular weights. Even within a weight room, gender segregation is formed. The weight machines, that women tend to use, are separated by a wall from the actual weights, which men tend to use. The weight room also caused segregation within the male gender. I typically only saw one form of body type within the weight room. Men with some sort of muscular built were only present within the weight room. The weight room also played music on the sound system and men generally did not have earphones in their ears. If a man did have earphones on he usually only had one earphone in his ear. Men were also very talkative in the weight room. They engaged in conversation and offered each other assistance and encouragement. The women that were present in the weight room were typically not a lone. They either had a personal trainer or a friend with them while in the weight room. The outside weight room had a balance amount of men and women. There are foam weights located in this area so women tended to use those weights more. There were also a variety of gender neutral equipment located in this area like the rowing machine, box steppers, and sit-up machines. Although the first floor of the Wooden Center does divide male and females and people within the same gender apart; it does however, facilitate an area that is generally gender neutral.