Women's Sport Locker Rooms Australia | Designing for Female Athletes

The growth of women’s sport in Australia over the past decade has been one of the most significant stories in Australian sport. The AFLW has transformed expectations at AFL clubs. The Matildas’ 2023 World Cup run changed how Australians relate to soccer. Super Netball has grown its broadcast audience significantly. Women’s cricket is professional. Women’s rugby sevens is Olympic.

That growth has a facilities dimension. At elite level, women’s sport programs now expect—and demand—change rooms that match the quality of what men’s programs have had for decades. At community level, female athletes and their families are increasingly aware of the standard they should be receiving. And clubs that invest in quality change rooms for their women’s programs are noticing the difference in recruitment and retention.

At Lockers World, we design and build change rooms for women’s sport programs across Australia. This guide covers what makes a change room work well for female athletes—from privacy considerations to sport-specific storage needs.

Why Women’s Sport Locker Rooms Need Specific Design

A locker room is functional furniture—but it’s also an environment that communicates how a club values its athletes. For women’s sport programs, the locker room often tells a more complicated story than it does for men’s programs.

Historically, many Australian sporting facilities were designed with men’s sport as the primary user. Women’s teams were often allocated the smaller change room, the older facility, or the same generic space that served the men’s team on a time-share basis. This has changed in elite sport, but it persists at community level more than it should.

Specific design considerations for women’s sport change rooms include:

Privacy

Privacy in change rooms is a more significant concern for female athletes than it often is in men’s programs. This applies both within the change room (between locker bays) and in terms of the room’s relationship to the rest of the facility. Design considerations:

• Higher privacy screens between locker bays than is typical in men’s change rooms
• A secure, private entry that cannot be accessed from the main facility area during use
• Shower cubicles with full-height screens rather than open shower areas
• Thoughtful positioning of mirrors and shared spaces

Storage Specifics

Female athletes carry similar but not identical equipment to their male equivalents. Key storage considerations:

• Hanging space for sports-specific clothing (netball dresses, women’s jersey cuts)
• A dedicated shelf or compartment for personal care items
• A hook or dedicated space for sports bras and compression garments
• A power outlet near the mirror area for hair dryers and styling tools (increasingly standard in elite change rooms)

Mirror and Personal Care Area

Women’s change rooms benefit from a dedicated mirror area separate from the locker run—a space where multiple players can use mirrors simultaneously without blocking the lockers. This is an inexpensive addition to most change room designs and is consistently valued in post-installation feedback.

Sport-Specific Requirements

Netball

Netball is Australia’s most-played women’s team sport, with nearly 1.2 million participants. Netball locker rooms need:

• Hanging space for netball dresses (full-length hang, not folded)
• Shoe storage (flat court shoes or cross-trainers—less bulky than football boots)
• Storage for bibs (typically 14 bibs per team)
• A visible, accessible space for the first aid kit

Netball change rooms tend to be smaller than contact sport change rooms due to smaller squad sizes and less equipment per player. 15-inch width lockers are usually appropriate, with full-height hanging space and a ventilated lower compartment for shoes.

Australian Rules Football (AFLW and VFL Women’s)

Women’s AFL has grown dramatically and has specific facility standards that clubs must meet for affiliation. Locker requirements mirror men’s AFL more than other women’s sports—guernseys, shorts, boots, mouthguards, and padding all need storage. Key differences from men’s programs are the privacy considerations and the importance of the change room as a statement about how the club values its women’s program.

Soccer (A-League Women and NPL Women’s)

Women’s football has specific requirements around jersey hanging, boot storage, and the increasing professionalism of club identity expression in women’s programs. A-League Women’s clubs should match the standard of their men’s facility wherever possible—the women’s program deserves the same investment in its change room environment.

Athletics and Multi-Sport

Athletics change rooms serve multiple events and sometimes multiple clubs. The primary need is flexibility—lockers wide enough for a range of equipment types, with good ventilation and a clean, professional finish. University athletics programs often share change rooms across multiple athletics events and benefit from modular configurations.

Shared Facilities: Getting It Right

Many Australian sports facilities have change rooms shared between men’s and women’s teams—either at the same club or between different clubs at a shared facility. This is a significant design challenge that is often handled poorly.

The solution is not simply to schedule men’s and women’s teams at different times and call it shared use. Each group deserves a space that functions for their specific needs. In a shared building, this means:

• Clearly separate change room areas with separate entrances
• Each area designed for its primary user group’s needs
• Consistent quality between men’s and women’s areas—not a premium men’s room and a basic women’s room

In facilities where physical separation isn’t possible, modular systems with interchangeable branding elements can allow the same locker bays to serve different teams while maintaining some personalisation. But this should be seen as a compromise, not a solution—the goal should be dedicated space for each group.

The Elite Standard: What AFLW and Super Netball Have Established

The women’s elite sport change room standard in Australia has been set by AFLW and Super Netball programs. These facilities include:

• Individual locker bays with player names, in full club colours
• Dedicated treatment and medical space adjacent to the change room
• Private, individual shower cubicles with full-height privacy screens
• Separate personal care areas with mirrors, outlets, and bench space
• Club and program identity expressed throughout the room—not just on the lockers

This standard is aspirational for community clubs, but the principles are scalable. A community netball club doesn’t need an AFLW-standard change room, but it can apply the same principles—privacy, quality, custom branding, and thoughtful design—at a community budget.

Building the Case for a Women’s Sport Change Room Upgrade

For clubs where the women’s program has been under-resourced in facilities, building the case for an upgrade requires clear arguments:

• Recruitment: Quality change rooms help recruit and retain female athletes at every level
• Retention: Female athletes who feel valued by their club’s facilities are more likely to remain long-term
• Affiliation compliance: Many sport bodies now require minimum change room standards for women’s programs as conditions of affiliation
• Grant eligibility: NSW Sport, VicSport, and other state bodies have specific grant programs for women’s sport infrastructure
• Equity: The simplest argument—women’s programs deserve the same quality of facility as men’s programs

We can provide 3D renderings and itemised costings to support grant applications for women’s sport facility upgrades.

Getting Started

A free consultation is the starting point for any women’s sport change room project. We’ll discuss your club’s specific requirements, the sports you’re designing for, privacy considerations, and budget. Following the consultation, we provide 3D renderings in your club or program colours—so your committee can visualise the outcome.

Related Reading

• Netball Lockers Australia
• How to Choose Sports Lockers for Australian Teams
• AFL Lockers: Custom Locker Rooms for Australian Rules Football
• 7-Step Locker Room Planning Guide