According to the Phoenix Journal/NYT, controversy is erupting in Phoenix over the men’s-only grill at the Phoenix Country Club. There is a separate, far less comfortable dining room for women, and a main dining room for both men and women, but it’s closed between meals. Women can’t grab a beer after a round of golf, or talk to a client over drinks, in either room. (Come on, people, ladies like day drinking too!) Women and men alike have been speaking out against the archaic rule that forbids women from so much as entering the men’s grill, and as a reward for their progressiveness, they’re being harassed:
The targets of [the harassers’] ire were the women, and some men, who have dared to speak up against the club’s policy of forbidding women in the men’s grill room, a center of power dining in Phoenix.
Barbara Van Sittert, one of those women, said her husband, Logan, 73, has been heckled while playing golf and once found his locker defaced.
“They hooted and hollered at him and called his wife a whore,” said Mrs. Van Sittert, 72, a petite, quiet woman with an elegant white bob. “It was not warm and fuzzy.”
Wait, seriously? SERIOUSLY? I suppose I’m not shocked by the rule itself. My family belongs to a country club that still has separate dining rooms, and I’ve always thought that the old-fashioned rules of a country club are a little…extreme (for instance, cell phones are prohibited on the premises of my country club). But it’s the reaction in this case that really shocks me. That a grown man would deface someone’s locker like an angry 9th-grade boy, or set up a website with the names and numbers of those speaking out against the sexism of the men’s grill (as one member did), is appalling.
A lawsuit is in the works, but in the meantime,
the club’s board has not found the attention or legal proceedings enchanting. First, it amended its bylaws to state that any member who makes “derogatory or otherwise injurious comments in the media” is subject to suspension and legal fees, and ditto for those who sue. It also warned that spouses of dead members would no longer automatically maintain their privileges.
That’s great, isn’t it? Sorry your spouse died, and please don’t come back to the club again. Lord.
My sister also told me that one of the country clubs in Kansas City, near where she goes to school, still does not accept black members. As in, neither Tiger Woods nor James Blake could join the club.
Just a little something to think about. (Apparently, Saturdays are for anger here at SWTCTW.)
[Posted by Mallory]
six words to change the world. 
AZ Attorney General filed a discrimination lawsuit earlier this week against PCC. It’ll be interesting to see what happens in court.
http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2008/09/15/daily31.html says:
Although the country club, which has played a prominent role in the history of Phoenix and the business community, is a private club, the lawsuit contends that PCC promotes itself for public events and meetings and “derives significant income” from catering to outside groups. Thus, it is subject to anti-discrimination laws, according to the lawsuit.
…. Maybe then they can do something about Augusta National Golf Club, where the Masters Tournament is held every year, and where women still aren’t even allowed to be members
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusta_National_Golf_Club — check out the swanky member names
http://www.golftoday.co.uk/news/yeartodate/news02/augusta5.html — kinda fiesty
Old PCC is not the only “gendered” club. Whisper Rock–MEN ONLY, Troon CC. –large men’s grill room and Pinnacle Peak CC–men’s only grill.
I am sure the majority of the other private clubs in the Phx/Scottsdale area are quite archaic. Doesn’t bode well for my daughters as an example of the way some of the ol timers still think about women.