Clubs may have to welcome women

March 14, 2002

For years women have put up with drinking in the lounge instead of the bar or teeing off in the half-light. But all that could change under plans to put women on an equal footing to men at working men's clubs and golf clubs in the region.

In a Private Member's Bill backed by the Government, private clubs will no longer be allowed to offer associate memberships to women. It means that dozens of clubs could be forced to become single sex or offer men and women equal membership.

But yesterday, clubs in the North-East said there was little call for the law.

Mac Jefferson, chairman of Stanley Working Men's Club, County Durham, one of the largest WMCs in the North-East, said it had not had any pressure from its women members to change the rules.

‘They seem to be happy with the way things are,’ he said. ‘There's only the bar that they are not allowed in, and I think 90 per cent of them wouldn't want to sit at a smoky bar with a load of men playing dominoes and cards’.

The Bill was due to get its second reading in the House of Lords yesterday. If it is passed, it will remove the exemption from sex discrimination laws for private members' clubs but will not apply to single-sex organisations such as Scouts, Guides and the Women's Institute.

From The Northern Echo

Copyright (c) 2000-2002 Sue Kelly