Women-only gyms and workout areas have a devoted — and growing — clientele in Metro Vancouver, two industry veterans said Thursday.

“A lot of ladies-only clubs have closed and I put that down to poor management,” said Chuck Lawson, president and CEO of the She’s Fit! Group of Clubs.

“And a lot of coed clubs that say they have a ladies’ section within the club don’t do a good job of it. The joke is that it’s a graveyard for old equipment. We put in the same equipment that’s in a coed club except it’s sized for women.”

While a number of Curves facilities that cater to fitness newcomers have closed in Metro Vancouver, former members are showing up at She’s Fit!, he said.

“Looking at the number of women who are joining the ladies-only clubs — women who have the choice to join a coed club or just a women’s club — we’re having a grandiose year,” Lawson said in a phone interview as he prepares to open a new facility in Maple Ridge next week.

Fourteen She’s Fit! locations in Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley have between 85,000 and 90,000 members, he said.

The Steve Nash Fitness World and Sports Club location at Davie and Howe streets in downtown Vancouver announced this week it has decided to get rid of its women-only area. A company spokeswoman explained Wednesday that most members of the club wanted the space to be “inclusive” and “gender neutral.”

Lawson has heard all about gender issues on the gym floor when his company — then called Just Ladies Fitness — ended up in front of the BC Human Rights Tribunal in 2005 because it denied membership to a man. The tribunal later ruled in favour of the club, saying that opening it to men would cause a hardship to female members.

During the hearing, University of B.C. sociologist Gillian Creese submitted an expert opinion to the tribunal which defined the “male gaze” as “the ways in which men routinely judge and appraise women’s bodies in everyday interactions.”

That’s still a factor, Lawson says.

“It’s not just middle-aged women or women who aren’t in great shape. There are a lot of younger women who are in terrific shape working out on the women’s side. It’s referenced by Dr. Creese. Some call it the ogling factor — a lot of women don’t want to work out in front of men.”

Lawson founded Just Ladies Fitness 1992, bought out B.C.’s Spa Lady locations in 2002 and changed the chain’s name to She’s Fit! in 2007. His company owns of all the stand-alone clubs and is a co-owner with Club 16 Trevor Linden Fitness Group in locations that feature both gyms.

Ironman Canada founder Ron Zalko, creator of the 20,000-square-foot gym named for him at Burrard and First streets in Vancouver, says he’s had a women-only area for more than 35 years and isn’t about to change.

“Fitness is important and we provide an avenue for everyone to be comfortable,” said Zalko. “The way God created us, sometimes men don’t care how they look when they do certain exercises, but women sometimes don’t feel comfortable and I understand it. That’s the way it is.”