No Men, No Pressure: Moms Across Europe Are Taking Back the Dance Floor is the U.S. Next?
For years, club culture has centered around men—men watching, men pursuing, men taking up space. But now, across Europe, women are proving something revolutionary: we don’t need men to have a good time. In fact, when they’re not around, the party is better.
Mathilde Neiman remembers her wild 20s at Paris’s iconic Raspoutine nightclub—stumbling out at 5 a.m., carefree and childless. Fast-forward 20 years, she’s now a mom of two, but on a recent Tuesday at 7 p.m., she was back at that same club—this time for a women-only dance party.
It’s a funny kind of paradox, going to a place where you had the wildest nights… and now going back at 7 p.m. with women your age, she said.
These all-female parties are booming across Europe. Events like Diva Paris and Germany’s Mama Geht Tanzen (Mama Goes Dancing) are made for women juggling kids, careers, and a desperate need to move their bodies without being ogled. The best part? No one’s watching—especially not men.
“We do have energy,” Neiman says. “We just have it at a different time of day.”
These parties are held at mom-friendly hours—think 8 to 11 p.m.—so women can kiss their kids goodnight and still get home before the last train. And in the absence of men, everything shifts: drinks feel safer, outfits are worn for yourself, and no one’s waiting around for the beat to drop. You walk in, and the dance floor is already pulsing.
“The fact that there are only women means that they let go of all inhibitions a lot quicker,” says Constance d’Amécourt, co-founder of Diva Paris. “The idea is not to exclude men, but to offer a moment for women.”
DJ Nikki Beatnik, who launched Mums That Rave in London, puts it more bluntly:
“It was two fingers up to the establishment, stereotypes, and all that’s expected of moms.”
And it’s working. Mama Geht Tanzen now has parties in 200 cities across Europe. The women come in, the music starts, and it’s a dance rebellion from the jump.
Turns out, women don’t need to wait until the kids are grown—or for some man to buy the next round. All they need is a beat, each other, and a little space to be loud, sweaty, and free.
