If Naturism Wants More Women, Women Need More Power Within It

by Brendan Jones
Founder of Get Naked Australia, helping make social nudity feel a little less intimidating for the past decade.

Naturism does not have a shortage of curious women. It has a shortage of women who feel confident enough to take the next step.

That distinction matters. Because if naturist organisations respond to slow growth simply by trying to recruit more people, they can accidentally make the problem worse. The easiest demographic to attract is often men, creating spaces that become increasingly male-dominated and, in turn, less appealing to many of the women those communities hoped would eventually join.

If we genuinely want naturism to grow — not simply attract more paying members, but develop strong, diverse and sustainable communities — then women need to play a much greater role in shaping what those communities become.

Women remain significantly underrepresented across many parts of naturism. We see it among participants, influencers, committees, organisations and the people making decisions about how events and communities operate. There are women doing brilliant work and stepping into leadership positions, but there are still nowhere near enough of them.

That should concern anyone who cares about the future of naturism.

Why Are Women-Only Events Needed?

We are beginning to see more women-only naturist events, and I think they can provide an incredibly valuable starting point for women who might otherwise never participate.

But we should also be willing to ask a deeper question: why are they needed?

When women who are curious about naturism say they would feel comfortable starting in a women-only environment but not a mixed one, we should pay attention to what that tells us. The immediate answer is often that women feel safer or more comfortable around other women. That is completely understandable.

But it also raises an important question for the wider naturist community: why do some women not feel that same level of comfort in mixed spaces?

Women-only events can be an important bridge into naturism. They can create confidence, familiarity and community. But they should not allow the wider naturist world to avoid examining its own culture.

The long-term ambition should be mixed spaces where women feel just as safe, represented and influential — not a situation where women feel they need to separate themselves in order to participate comfortably.

The Gender Imbalance Tells Us Something

Women make up roughly half the population, yet many naturist spaces remain disproportionately male. There is no obvious reason naturism itself should naturally appeal overwhelmingly to one gender.

Naturism is supposed to be available to everyone. Its underlying ideas — body acceptance, freedom from judgement, greater comfort with ourselves and less shame around nudity — are not inherently male interests.

Yet when participation becomes heavily male-dominated, it changes the atmosphere of a space, even when every man attending has completely respectful intentions. That is something the naturist community needs to be comfortable acknowledging.

A space can feel welcoming to the people already inside it while still appearing intimidating to someone considering entering it. Existing members may genuinely believe an event is safe and inclusive, but safety and comfort are not defined solely by the intentions of organisers or existing participants. They are also shaped by how the environment is experienced by the people we are hoping to include.

If women continually look at naturist events and decide they are not comfortable attending, we cannot keep concluding that women simply are not interested.

That is information.

It tells us something about the environment we have created.

More Members Does Not Always Mean Healthy Growth

If the primary objective is simply to increase membership or generate revenue, the easiest option is often to open the doors completely and accept whoever signs up. In many naturist communities, that can quickly result in a significant influx of men.

The numbers increase, revenue increases and the organisation appears more successful on paper. But that does not necessarily represent healthy growth.

If growth makes a community increasingly disproportionate, it can make participation even less appealing to women. The imbalance then begins reinforcing itself. More men join because the community already feels comfortable and familiar to them, while fewer women join because the space increasingly looks as though it was built around someone else's experience.

Eventually, the imbalance becomes part of the culture.

Good growth is not simply about how many people attend. It is about who feels able to attend, whether they return and whether they develop a genuine sense of belonging and ownership.

A strong naturist community should grow in a way that remains socially sustainable. It should attract people who understand the values of the space, contribute positively to its culture and make participation easier for the people who come after them.

Sometimes You Have to Deliberately Shape the Culture

At Get Naked Australia, we have used gender-balanced ticketing for larger events such as our harbour cruises. In practice, that means the number of places available to men is influenced by the number of women participating.

That approach has attracted criticism. Some people consider it discriminatory towards men, and I understand why someone looking at the policy purely as an individual ticketing decision might feel that way.

But the purpose is not to punish men or suggest that men do not belong in naturism. It is an attempt to prevent an imbalance developing that could fundamentally change the atmosphere of an event and make participation less accessible to women.

Sometimes culture has to be deliberately created during the early stages of a community. If the demographic most willing to participate immediately is allowed to determine the direction of growth entirely, existing imbalances are likely to deepen.

But if you establish the type of culture you want from the beginning, that culture has a better chance of eventually sustaining itself.

The goal should not be to enforce gender balance forever. The goal should be to reach a point where the community is strong enough to maintain a healthy balance organically.

That may require growing more slowly. It may mean selling fewer tickets. It may occasionally mean turning away people who are ready and willing to pay. From a short-term business perspective, that can be difficult.

But rapid growth that permanently changes the culture can be much harder to undo.

Female Participation Is Not Enough

Getting more women through the door is only part of the answer. Women also need genuine influence over how naturist spaces are designed, managed and developed.

That means women in leadership positions. It means women making decisions on behalf of the community. And it means listening to women before policies, events and cultures are created — not simply asking them to provide a female presence or endorse decisions that have already been made.

There is an obvious tension in me making this argument. Get Naked Australia is my brand, and I am a man who has remained very visible at the front of it.

I need to be willing to acknowledge that.

But I also believe much of GNA's success has come from recognising that my experience cannot represent everyone else's. Our approach has been shaped by listening to women, giving women influence within the community and understanding that their confidence in an event can have a major impact on whether that event becomes genuinely inclusive.

Female leadership is not about appearing progressive or satisfying a quota. Women may recognise barriers that male organisers simply do not see because we have never personally experienced them.

They may ask different questions about safety, photography, privacy, communication, social dynamics, event design and what behaviour should or should not be accepted within a community.

And perhaps most importantly, women considering their first naturist experience may place greater trust in a community when they can see women actively shaping it.

Representation sends a powerful message: this space was not merely opened to women.

Women helped create it.

Women Should Help Set the Pace of Growth

If a naturist community genuinely wants balanced participation, the pace of male participation cannot continually outstrip female participation.

That may require patience. The number of women who feel comfortable joining a community should help determine how quickly the wider community grows.

As more women participate, lead, invite friends and become visible within the culture, the capacity for broader participation can grow alongside them.

That is slower growth, but I believe it is better growth.

Women are not simply another demographic naturism needs to recruit. Their willingness to participate can also tell us something about whether a space feels socially safe, trustworthy and genuinely inclusive.

If women consistently hesitate to enter a community, the answer should not simply be better marketing.

Sometimes the community itself needs to change.

The Future of Naturism

Naturism has values that could benefit far more people than it currently reaches. It can encourage body acceptance, reduce shame and create spaces where people relate to one another without many of the usual social markers and judgements.

The curiosity is already there. What is often missing is a pathway into participation that feels genuinely safe, welcoming and trustworthy.

If naturist organisations want to reach the people standing cautiously at the edges, they need to examine who holds authority, whose experiences shape their decisions and whether their growth models are serving the whole community.

Women-only events may be part of that journey. Gender-balanced ticketing may also be useful during certain stages of growth. But neither should be mistaken for the final destination.

The goal should be naturist communities in which women are not a minority to be protected, marketed to or strategically recruited. They should be equal participants, visible leaders and genuine architects of the culture.

If naturism wants more women to participate, it cannot simply ask women to join what already exists. Women need a meaningful role in deciding what naturism becomes next.

Give women greater influence over the culture, and I believe participation will follow. And if we get that right, naturism will not simply become bigger.

It will become healthier, stronger and far more capable of lasting.

What Do You Think?

Do you agree with Brendan? Does naturism need more women in leadership to grow?