Image: JDHancock When it comes to forced segregation the modern consensus is that it is a bad idea. We have enough unspoken segregation thanks to money and class as it is, so when it comes to written rules such as the ban on women joining the Royal and Ancient Golf Club St Andrews. While other people were frivolously deciding on whether or not Scotland should break free and say yes to independence and Alex Salmond (and therefore no to David Cameron and Alistair Darling) 2400 male members of the golf club were deciding via postal vote whether or not women should be allowed to join the club.
We don't really know why they voted yes. Maybe because it's 2014, maybe because they have wives they like to spend time with wearing his n' hers plus fours. Perhaps because it just would have been bad PR and the image of golf would have been smashed forever. But they did what club secretary Peter Dawson said was: "right for golf"
As it happens for me personally this is neither here nor there, for I do not play golf and I'm not much of a joiner. I do however always feel a small sense of triumph when such victories are made. Of course women should be allowed to join this golf club, if golf must exist then it must be equal opportunities. And all that.
Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation chief executive Ruth Holdaway thought the result was "brilliant news" saying: "The admittance of female members is a symbolic step in the move towards full equality in sport and for golf in particular." Sports minister Helen Grant agreed: "This is positive news for the sport and I hope we will now see other golf clubs that still have outdated same-sex policies follow suit."
As it happens for me personally this is neither here nor there, for I do not play golf and I'm not much of a joiner. I do however always feel a small sense of triumph when such victories are made. Of course women should be allowed to join this golf club, if golf must exist then it must be equal opportunities. And all that.
Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation chief executive Ruth Holdaway thought the result was "brilliant news" saying: "The admittance of female members is a symbolic step in the move towards full equality in sport and for golf in particular." Sports minister Helen Grant agreed: "This is positive news for the sport and I hope we will now see other golf clubs that still have outdated same-sex policies follow suit."
| However writer and editor of The Lady Rachel Johnson disagrees saying men should be allowed such space for themselves. Man space, if you will. Having attended Oxford and being related to two members of the Bullingdon Club Rachel has obviously experienced the sensation of being barred for her sex. However she had no desire to join clubs such as the Bullingdon. | From the working men's clubs to the beefsteak style private clubs... these establishments are not havens for put-upon men to cower in |
"It was already obvious to me as a teenager that the male needs his outlets and his redoubts. If you think about it, so much social life - parties, dinners, bridge, weddings, especially weddings - is originated, organised, cast and commissioned by women mainly for the benefit of other women. And it is so often the role of the man merely to fall in with these well-laid plans."
When it comes to worrying about things such as the R&A golf club allowing in women you might as well whine about not owning India any more. This isn't a ban on men attending the golf club to meet other men. There's not going to be an insistence on male, female seating arrangements in the pubs.
Rachel continues: "The truth is most famous clubs have been established as the consequence of the natural male urge to spend hours in the company of men and escape the company of women. And no change in the law or the membership roll of the Royal & Ancient will ever alter that."
From the working men's clubs to the beefsteak style private clubs Rachel is talking about these establishments are not havens for put-upon men to cower in whilst wifey rampages about the kitchen with a baby attached to her now disappointingly sagging bosom. They are a space for deals to take place that exclude women, with the excuse of 'oh, you weren't there'.
Now, of course, I cannot spout about the necessity of safe spaces for self identified women and not acknowledge recognition of self identifying men requiring similar for themselves. But is the golf club such a space? No. For it is a place in which to play a sport.
Squeamish Kate
When it comes to worrying about things such as the R&A golf club allowing in women you might as well whine about not owning India any more. This isn't a ban on men attending the golf club to meet other men. There's not going to be an insistence on male, female seating arrangements in the pubs.
Rachel continues: "The truth is most famous clubs have been established as the consequence of the natural male urge to spend hours in the company of men and escape the company of women. And no change in the law or the membership roll of the Royal & Ancient will ever alter that."
From the working men's clubs to the beefsteak style private clubs Rachel is talking about these establishments are not havens for put-upon men to cower in whilst wifey rampages about the kitchen with a baby attached to her now disappointingly sagging bosom. They are a space for deals to take place that exclude women, with the excuse of 'oh, you weren't there'.
Now, of course, I cannot spout about the necessity of safe spaces for self identified women and not acknowledge recognition of self identifying men requiring similar for themselves. But is the golf club such a space? No. For it is a place in which to play a sport.
Squeamish Kate
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