5 times women fought to keep men out of their spaces this year
As schools, sports bodies, and policymakers kept blurring sex-based boundaries, female athletes, parents, and advocates pushed back—sometimes at real personal cost—to defend the idea that women’s spaces are for women.
In 2025, women didn’t wait for institutions to fix what they broke. As schools, sports bodies, and policymakers kept blurring sex-based boundaries, female athletes, parents, and advocates pushed back—sometimes at real personal cost—to defend the basic idea that women’s spaces are for women. From podium protests and legal complaints to state-level legislation and a coordinated demand to restore stolen records, these five moments show women drawing a clear line where universities and governing bodies wouldn’t.
Campus Reform compiled five examples from the past year when women fought to preserve their spaces.
1. Female athlete refused to stand next to a male, so they took her medal: VIDEO
Oregon high school track athlete Alexa Anderson refused to stand on a winners’ podium beside a male competitor at the state championships, stepping down in protest of men being placed in girls’ events. Officials then withheld her medal, but Anderson said she acted to defend fairness and safety for female athletes, and her stand has become part of a wider pushback movement.
2. 28 Attorneys general demand NCAA reinstate women’s titles, records taken by male athletes
A coalition of 28 Republican state attorneys general sent a letter to NCAA president Charlie Baker urging the association to restore women’s championships, titles, records, and awards that were given to male athletes competing in women’s events. The request follows new federal direction to reinstate female athletes’ honors after earlier transgender-inclusion policies, and athletes like former UPenn swimmer Paula Scanlan argued the NCAA still hasn’t fully corrected past injustices such as Lia Thomas-era records.
3. Utah mom invited to speak to legislature as lawmakers consider bill opposing men in women’s dorms
Utah mom Cheryl Saltzman, whose daughter was assigned a male resident assistant in her Utah State University dorm, was invited to testify at the state legislature as lawmakers considered H.B. 269, a bill to keep men out of women’s dorms at public colleges. After Saltzman went public about her daughter’s experience and the lack of consent or alternatives for female students, House leaders called her to discuss the case, and she used her legislative testimony to argue that women deserve sex-specific housing and that campuses must stop inserting men into women’s living spaces.
Parents filed a Title IX complaint against Princeton University alleging that its policies on “gender-neutral” bathrooms and housing erase sex-based protections for female students. The complaint, submitted by Defending Education, points to Princeton’s roughly 250 gender-inclusive restrooms, all-gender housing, and transgender health services, and argues these policies force women into intimate spaces with men and compromise privacy and safety. It also cites examples of first-year women being required to use communal all-gender bathrooms with partial stalls, claiming students cannot realistically opt out because housing assignments are random.
5. Montana House passes bill banning men from women’s restrooms on campus
Montana lawmakers advanced a bill to keep sex-segregated campus facilities female-only. The state House passed House Bill 121 by a 58–42 vote, barring men who identify as women from using women’s restrooms, changing rooms, and sleeping quarters at public colleges and universities, with the sponsor saying women shouldn’t have to feel unsafe or uncomfortable in private spaces. The measure was framed as a commonsense protection of privacy and safety and moved on to the state Senate for consideration.
