THIS HAS TO be one of the strangest cases of everyday sexism you’re likely to see – as this time the perpetrator was actually a computer and not a person.
A gym in the UK has been forced to apologise after a woman could not enter the female changing rooms because anyone with the title of “doctor” was automatically categorised as male on its computer system.
According to Cambridge News, Dr. Louise Selby was denied access because the computer system automatically enters any Doctor as male. The gym has apologised for the incident, but Selby, speaking to the newspaper, was outraged:
Their archaic attitudes to women and blatant sexism really are second to none. They may have modern machines, but their attitudes are firmly stuck in the early 20th century.
She revealed that there was an option to put “Doctor” as your title when you sign up:
I was speechless and I’m not often speechless. If it is some sort of IT glitch then why don’t they fix it? There was even an option on the form to say whether you are male or female. They should offer an apology to people who have been affected because it has caused offence.
- David Elkin
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