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Mark Harrington didn't realize it at the time, but the legal battles he fought in the 1990s would become a blessing in disguise.
In 1996, James Foster sued Harrington's Boston-based Healthworks Fitness Centers for Women on the grounds that the clubs discriminated against men. Foster, a patent lawyer armed with a Harvard law degree, had filed similar complaints against New York bars that offered free drinks for women during happy hour.
A year after the Healthworks complaint was filed, a superior court judge ruled in Foster's favor. Foster may have won the battle, but he did not win the war. A bill was quickly introduced in the Massachusetts House that allowed single-sex clubs to operate in that state, and in January 1998, Massachusetts Gov. Paul Cellucci signed the bill into law.
"In a lot of ways, it was very positive for us," says Harrington, who has owned Healthworks since 1977. "It brought attention to the niche we had, the significance of it and how important it was to a lot of people."
Over the past two to three decades, the women-only club model has evolved from the circuit clubs popularized by Curves to multipurpose clubs that provide their members with services and amenities unique
to the women-only model. Operators at women-only clubs continue to hold true to their beliefs that women-only clubs are necessary for their members, be it on a social, emotional or religious level. These operators face challenges from coed club operators who see women-only clubs as competitors with an unfair advantage, as well as agencies and organizations who maintain that clubs that are either women-only or have women-only sections within their clubs violate certain statutes.
A number of challenges to the women-only model have taken place over the past 10 years in California, where clubs have been found to violate California's Unruh Civil Rights Act, or California Civil Code Section 51. The 1959 act outlaws discrimination by businesses in the state based on age, sex or race, among other qualifiers. Body Central (2006), Gold's Gym (2007), California Family Fitness (2008), In-Shape Health Clubs (2011) and Lady of America (2011) have all been cited for violations in California. (See sidebar on page 31.)
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