When First World War troops returned to Vancouver and 90 years ago set up a golf course in Point Grey, they reserved 50 places for women.
According to a former board member at the private club, the Point Grey Golf and Country Club secured these full-membership places, not setting a limit of 50 but ensuring at least 50 women could participate out of 500-or-so male members.
Id love the opportunity to hear the stories of those women. They were a rare group. The board member I talked to said there werent 50 women to fill the 50 places. He said few played and fewer were interested.
(My grandmother was a top-flight golfer through 1950 until the early '90s; she lived in a small town in the Kootenays. If shed been born at the same time as me and had access to similar post-secondary scholarships, coaching or sponsorship, shed be in the LPGA.)
Point Grey differs from hundreds of tradition-bound and patriarchal North American golf courses. Shaughnessy, for example, didnt allow women full membership until the late 80s (although I dont have all the details to give a fuller picture.)
This brings me to the famed golf course at Augusta, GA. and Virginia Rometty the CEO of IBM, which is one of three corporate sponsor of The Masters, which itself is one of the greatest events in sport.
Although the last four CEOs of IBM, all male, have each received complimentary membership at Augusta and crowned, so to speak, by a green jacket, Rometty doesnt get one. As a woman, she is denied membership into the mens only club.
The most important question is how IBM will handle this prejudiced exclusion. In 1990 the computer giant pulled its advertising from the PGA championship when the event was hosted at Shoal Creek, an Alabama club that excluded black golfers. A spokeswoman said at the time, Supporting, even indirectly, activities which are exclusionary is against IBMs practices and policies.
The American president supports women as members at Augusta. So does the inevitable Republican candidate for the White House, Mitt Romney.
We know this is outdated, even if Augusta spokesmen argue the private club will keep its business private. But The Masters is anything but private. The 2010 tournament viewership reached 4.94 million, nearly double the previous year thanks to the presence of Tiger Woods. A similar story line repeats this year.
Such a hilariously outdated mindset is underscored by a comment from The Masters boys club itself. The previous club chairman, Hootie Johnson, famously declared 10 years ago that female members would only be introduced at the clubs discretion and not at the point of a bayonet. Isnt that how the Civil War was lost?
I was on CKNWs The Bill Good Show Thursday morning with Mike Smyth to talk about Augusta, where women and girls can play but only by the invitation of a male member.
I said some long-winded, ranty things (in radio, its all about getting to a point, Ive learned) and was grateful to share the airwaves with the incredible Laura Robinson. She had the knowledge and composure to address one caller who suggested single-sex bathrooms must become the next frontier of gender equality if Augusta allows women in its club. She cited specific clause numbers from constitutional documents, listed off human right cases that established legal precedents and also named the women who pioneered change. Im happy to be in the company of this fellow bitter feminist, as one caller tried to dismiss us.
Ultimately, Im grateful that Virginia Rometty is the CEO of IBM. Thanks to her, were talking about the reasons she and other women should be fitted to wear a green jacket.
