Men only clubs

Tracey Chatterton at Stuff reports:

A partner in a Napier legal firm is boycotting the annual Law Society Christmas party because it is being held in a club that will not allow women as members.

Alison McEwan, of Langley Twigg Law, recently tweeted: “The Law Society is having their annual Xmas do at Hawke’s Bay Club which does not allow female members – so I won’t go.”

Ms McEwan was reluctant to talk to The Dominion Post because two of her senior partners were “stalwarts” of the club, but she did say: “Women had to fight to get the vote. I’m not prepared to let that part of our history go, I’m not prepared to take that for granted.”

President Alan Cooper confirmed that the Hawke’s Bay Club, established in 1863, had never had a female member.

“It’s been this way for 150 years,” he said. “Why would a woman want to be a member?”

He said it was not deliberate discrimination. “There’s areas of the club where you can entertain women.”

What the bedrooms?

Now don’t get me wrong. I support the right of the club to be exclusionary in its membership. They are a private club.

But what I don’t get is why would anyone want to belong to a club that bans women?

I couldn’t think of anything worse to belong to (well maybe Grey Power).