Madam, - In the last school year I taught a second-year class civic, social and political education (CSPE). Together we explored many topics such as the war in Iraq and the coup in Venezuela against Chavez. I impressed on them their ability to play a role in the world, a world they could change. In our free, democratic society, every opportunity was available to them.
Unfortunately, I got it wrong. Fifty per cent of them, the girls, would not be afforded the same opportunities as the other half, the boys. This was brought home to me last May when I visited an exhibition, Put More Women in the Picture. Laid out in the Dublin City Council offices were picture after picture of State boards and authorities.
The low numbers of women on these boards is truly a sad indictment on how we run our society. It represents an unfairness and an injustice to one half of our people.
Portmarnock Golf Club is hosting the Irish Open this week. It has a male-only membership. The antiquated position adopted by the club is symptomatic of a deeper malaise in our society. Portmarnock's membership reads like a who's who of society's elite. Many are chairmen of boards where women are scarce or non-existent.
Their membership of this club is entirely consistent with their role in the workplace. What should be evident is that the ramifications of belonging to an exclusive men-only club extend beyond the golf course.
The arguments against the stance adopted by Portmarnock have already been played out across the Atlantic in Augusta, Georgia, home of the US Masters. Augusta National has a similar men-only rule. The Augusta National chairman, Hootie Johnson, locked horns with Martha Burk of the National Council of Women's Organisations. "Our club has enjoyed a camaraderie and a closeness that's served us well for so long, that it makes it difficult for us to consider change", says Hootie. Difficult indeed, Hootie - you have me worried.
Tiger Woods says he favours admitting female members to Augusta. Padraig Harrington thinks differently - he believes in the freedom to choose. This freedom of association argument has been frequently used recently. Of course, if Portmarnock had a rule excluding black people from membership there would be such outrage that nice little philosophical arguments about freedom of association would not get a look in. Instead, it has a rule excluding half of the human race based solely on gender.
Many of the rules governing the membership of clubs were written over 100 years ago, when a woman's role in society was viewed rather differently. To all of the members of Portmarnock Golf Club, I wish to inform you that since your rules were written women have got the vote. I think it is high time for our pre-suffragettes to extricate themselves from the time warp they have so blissfully inhabited and embrace an enlightened era. I am tired of grey men in suits running the world badly, hanging on to the vestiges of a world long gone.
The solution to this anachronism of men-only golf clubs will lie with the courts. On the more important issue, positive discrimination enacted through legislation is the only way to redress the proper gender balance on our State boards and authorities.
And finally to all the girls of my CSPE class, one final wish. Hopefully, by the time you graduate from school, the courts and legislators will have firmly kicked the grey men in suits to touch from where on the sidelines they can watch you change the world. - Your etc.,
KIERAN MILLS,
Knocklyon Gate,
Ballycullen,
Dublin 16.