Separate tables for women? Why?

To SF citizens:

Until recently, San Francisco's Saint Anthony Dining Room reserved
a roped-off section, containing four tables, for women and families.
But now, in April 2009, single men are allowed to sit at half the tables in that section.
A sign still announces the previous policy;
which doesn't deter men who don't read, nor those who don't care.

Feminists and equalitarians may ask whether there should still be a space where women can retreat from men, in the 21st century.
Didn't we have feminist movements in the 19th and 20th centuries?
Don't we boast about Our Nancy breaking the marble ceiling, to become Speaker of the House?

All good. Yet these reforms shine brightest in the educated levels of U.S. society.
Down in the Tenderloin, the 21st century hasn't arrived.
Traditional ignorance and prejudices strongly prevail (concerning sex, ethnicity, color, immigrants,
gender-change, sexual orientation, psychiatric diagnoses, etc.).

In daily life among the homeless and near-homeless, a single female often faces insult, harassment, bullying, and
male attempts to get sex for free (or even to become her pimp)*.

Many of the women who eat lunch at St. Anthony's are victims of rape,
or attempted rape; and some are emotionally traumatized.
In SRO hotels, if a woman is raped, she may be intimidated into silence.
If she dares to complain, she may be ignored and/or disbelieved by managers
and neighbors who are deeply prejudiced against "bitches".

For example, when a deaf woman was raped by fellow tenants, hotel managers reportedly didn't evict the rapists;
so the victim often saw these men in hallways and shared areas.
Did this trauma contribute to her suicide?

Abolishing the women's area may seem progressive;
if you haven't experienced "the Tenderloin lifestyle".
Traumatized women, those who need to avoid men, may not complain.
They may just quietly stop going to the dining room.

Will anyone notice their absence?




-- Tenderloin Denizen


...
*
[Note: I'm NOT criticizing sexwork, survival sex, nor exchange sex;
so long as all parties are adult, completely willing, mentally competent, and treated fairly -- conditions which may be hard to meet in The Loin.]
................