What do students think about single-sex spaces? blog post by Alice Sullivan for HEPI

[IwantToRetire]

HEPI Policy Note 72 revealed that students’ views on access to single-sex spaces are not so different from those of the general public. When asked, ‘Do you think that biological males who identify as women should be allowed to use women’s changing rooms?’ only 31% of undergraduates said yes, while a majority (55%) said no, and the remainder (14%) said they did not know. Student views on the flipped question (‘Do you think biological females who identify as men should be allowed to use men’s changing rooms’) were only marginally more accommodating.

This might come as a surprise to university managers who have shied away from implementing legally compliant single-sex spaces and who sometimes appear fearful of what they take to be student opinion. Some students have been vocal in support of gender self-identification policies and against single-sex spaces. The National Union of Students has lobbied for trans inclusion (meaning the inclusion of biological men who identify as women in female spaces and sports). Student protests against academics who oppose the view that ‘trans women are women’ have received significant news coverage.

Blog post continues at https://www.hepi.ac.uk/2026/07/03/what-do-students-think-about-single-sex-spaces/

Thank you for this. Alice Sullivan’s research is so important in this area - it’s good to get her views on other numbers coming out. Also heartening to see that the GI chokehold is loosening in universities (amongst the students, anyway…).

As the parent of 3 uni age young adults these findings don't surprise me at all. Both my dds are a bit 'be kind' until it comes to single sex spaces and then they both admit they'd be scared and unhappy to see a man in the ladies loo. Even a man who is convinced he passes.

My son thinks its all nonsense and always has done.

That's a fantastic article and really gives me hope.

I think it's showing what we have always known.

That institutions have been listening to a noisy minority and not to the silent majority and making the wrong decisions.

Young people are strongly influenced by peers, especially when they are watching - so their true views can only be gauged when asking in a way that is private.

I really think that a society where boundaries around single sex spaces like hospitals, prisons, changing rooms and toilets are respected will be a society where trans people will be more accepted, too.
I personally think we will come to a place where "social" associations that are sex based and gender bases will coexist. Sport will continue with sex based categories.

I think there's a massive difference between what students might claim to think in public and what they actually think when given the opportunity to take part in an anonymous poll.

I wonder what their views on toilets are.

I'm surprised it's as many as 31% saying yes. I can only think that they are young and haven't yet encountered the worst of male behaviour.

Young and indoctrinated into T = LGB plus hefty dose of #bekind along with never experiencing a man whose aim is to make a female uncomfortable.

Oddly enough there is no breakdown by sex of the responses. That 31% are OK with trans identifying men in the Ladies could still mean 0% of women are in favour compared to 62% of men.

Do you think that biological males who identify as women should be allowed to use women’s changing rooms?’ only 31% of undergraduates said yes, while a majority (55%) said no, and the remainder (14%) said they did not know.

Agreed, it is more than a little sloppy not to have had that information.

And doesn't say much about the "Higher Education Policy Institute"

You can leave a comment here! https://www.hepi.ac.uk/reports/a-breed-apart-what-do-young-undergraduates-think-of-controversial-and-divisive-issues/ (at the end of the page)

Correction!

They do have the stats on male and female, they just haven't applied that break down to the superficial report.

You can download the info as either pdf or xls from same link.