My experience as a female who has trained in a variety of western gyms is as follows:
1. Being paired with men who will decrease their intensity too much out of fear of "hitting a woman" which hurts both of our training but is especially frustrating to me. I have to ask them to go harder, the coach has to tell them to go harder and sometimes they will and sometimes they still won't.
2. Not being taken seriously, left out of the gym "community" which usually consists of the coach and his best male fighters.
3. Sexual harassment or unwanted attention from other members; same age, older, single, married.
It's demoralizing but women are sadly used to being in spaces that are not friendly to them. The gym owner and staff need to be in charge of establishing and controlling the gym's culture. There should be an anonymous complaint box, established rules and no tolerance for sexual harassment. If possible the gym staff should take interest in all its members and try to understand why they are there and how they can support their goals.
