Women only parking spaces

[najaB]

I also start to wonder if this movement in society is going to start negatively impacting young lads. We are constantly told young girls are being impacted by media but young boys are starting to grow up in a world where it sometimes feels like boys and men are being told that they are simply awful and going to grow up into uncontrollable rapists simply because they are male.

While there are some who hold those views, it is far from the general opinion.

 

[najaB]

So no special car parks, waiting rooms, free toilets, etc. just for one specific group of people.
Free for some - free for all; one pays - all to pay.

Where public services are concerned, yes. When it comes to private facilities then the owners are free to enact whatever rules they choose and if anyone is offended the courts can decide if its discriminatory or not.

 

[341o2]

Aren't people allowed to self declare gender these days. I think my beard may be a give away!

You could claim you were part of a circus troupe, therefore if anyone challenged you, they would be discriminating against gypsies etc

 

[PeterC]

You could claim you were part of a circus troupe, therefore if anyone challenged you, they would be discriminating against gypsies etc

Showmen are a separate travelling group from gypsies.

 

[Josie]

Plenty of groups (e.g. women, disabled, colour, sexual preference, etc.) campaign to get "equal treatment" for everybody. They need to learn that "equal" does not mean "preferential" treatment for them.

And you need to learn that equality of opportunities isn't the same as equality of outcomes. The shorter person needs more boxes to see over the fence; that's not "preferential", that's addressing the imbalance that they started out with.


[Image description: two panels showing some cartoon figures standing behind a fence, watching a baseball match.
Panel 1: they're all standing on one box each. The tall and medium figures can see over the fence but the shortest one can't.
Panel 2: the tall figure is standing on the ground, the medium figure on one box and the short figure on two. Their heads are all at the same level and they can all see over the fence.]

 

[NSEFAN]

And you need to learn that equality of opportunities isn't the same as equality of outcomes. The shorter person needs more boxes to see over the fence; that's not "preferential", that's addressing the imbalance that they started out with.

In the context of the segregated parking spaces, the preferential treatment (I. E. specially reserved parking) may not actually help protect women. If the hypothetical Johnny Rapist is patrolling the streets, he needn't look any further for a victim than the helpfully signposted area. A better solution is to make the unsafe carpark safer, by installing better lighting and CCTV, or even better a member of staff, so that attackers know that they are more likely to be caught if they try anything.

 

[AlterEgo]

In the case of the original car park, why not just ensure the whole car park is properly lit, rather than the bit by the security office?

 

[Josie]

Actually I'm inclined to agree this is a fairly ineffective solution to a bigger problem. But that doesn't mean that anybody is demanding "preferential" treatment, or that they get it. Ladies waiting rooms, for example - rare though they are these days - provide a safe(r) place for women to wait where it's more difficult for men to harass them. Accessible parking spaces provide more space for mobility aids and reduced distance to facilities, so that disabled people can still get to the same things as non-disabled people even if they can't walk across a car park to get there. They don't aim to put anybody in a "better" position than when they started.

 

[NSEFAN]

Actually I'm inclined to agree this is a fairly ineffective solution to a bigger problem. But that doesn't mean that anybody is demanding "preferential" treatment, or that they get it. Ladies waiting rooms, for example - rare though they are these days - provide a safe(r) place for women to wait where it's more difficult for men to harass them. Accessible parking spaces provide more space for mobility aids and reduced distance to facilities, so that disabled people can still get to the same things as non-disabled people even if they can't walk across a car park to get there. They don't aim to put anybody in a "better" position than when they started.

In the case of a physically disabled person, it makes sense to allocate the most convenient spaces for them (near the exit/lifts etc) because of a physical problem. The issue of nasty men attacking women isn't necessarily solved by segregating spaces, indeed may make the problem worse. Men cannot park their cars in the women only spaces, but there's nothing to stop them from accessing it in the first place. A similar principle applies to ladies' waiting rooms: with no policing it provides little more than security theatre, as somebody determined enough to attack someone else can quite easily ignore a sign.

 

[Josie]

with no policing it provides little more than security theatre, as somebody determined enough to attack someone else can quite easily ignore a sign.

Absolutely. And so paying lip service to tick a box rather than doing a job properly is often useless, or can even make things worse.

 

[al78]

Absolutely. And so paying lip service to tick a box rather than doing a job properly is often useless, or can even make things worse.

Welcome to the UK.