About a month ago I was in a focus group and the person who led it forecast that the way we know country clubs here in the South will change - Period. It will have to. These clubs are still living in the Archie Bunker days, there is no doubt about it. Memberships for the most part are to the male only. I suppose the wives are tolerated. When a husband dies, the woman does not just get a membership, she reapplies and gets a shell of a membership, an associate membership.
Then I heard about the case in Shreveport, LA where a lawsuit was filed by women for being denied access to the Men's Grille at Southern Trace Country Club. Monday, the Second Court of Appeals reversed Judge Roy Brun's ruling - made after a trial - and ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, finding the club's practice of allowing only men in the Men's Grille to be discrimination based on sex.*
Most disturbing was that I learned about this on a local talkshow, WJBO, Mike Wolfe. Mike, thought this was just the beginning of women wanting to do all sorts of silly things. I would have hated to have been around him when we were trying to get to VOTE!
At the club we belong to I've never had any interest in going into the Men's Grill however I do think it is intensely unfair that the Ladies Area is so substandard in comparison. I venture to guess that we aren't the only club like this. For me, it means I don't use the club like I would if the facilities were built and staffed according to ladies' needs. Our club operates partially in the 1950's and partially in current times as it has started to address fitness.
Well, yes, it looks like "the club" will ultimately have to deal with the women issue.
*taken from Discrimination: Determined by the eye of the beholder?
Teddy Allen / Gannett News Service
Posted on October 21, 2003 in The Shreveport Times
