With the issue of equality for women in golf gaining momentum in this country, it is intriguing to note the similarity in discriminatory attitudes throughout the western world. Words like "condescending" and "dismissive" keep cropping up in response to the pressure for change.
It explains the hardening of attitudes which was apparent in a recent submission by the ILGU to the Oireachtas Sub-Committee on Equal Status. And it holds the key to an increasing reliance on legislation, especially in the US.
"I thought we probably wouldn't need legislation," said Ellen Scalettar, a Connecticut state representative. "My attitude was that we should just sit down with the representatives from the clubs and try to work things out. This is my general approach when people come to me seeking legislation."
She went on: "I wrote to the clubs that had been identified to me as clubs where there were problems, and many of them didn't even respond. Meanwhile, at that and other meetings, I was struck with the attitude of the club representatives.
"It was so condescending and dismissive that I understood better why these women felt they needed some kind of legislation." The upshot was that the desired change was embodied in Connecticut law, with effect from January 1998, after a number of women had voiced complaints about their club policies.
At the latest count, 12 of the 50 US states have legislated on the issue. But in a country obsessed with political correctness, discrimination in golf is still widely accepted.
For instance, there was the occasion when Berith Jacobsen, the owner of a sports goods company in Denver, Colorado and playing off 14, beat 129 men as the only woman competitor in a long-driving competition. But she was denied the prize of a Lynx, BoomBoom driver.
"I asked the tournament organiser why and he replied `These are all men here with big egos. How could I give you the club?' On meeting the national sales manager for Lynx at the PGA Show the following year, he said he would have done the same thing. My bubble was burst."
Another typical example comes from Eileen DeVries, who is vice-president of a multi-national company based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. After a Saturday morning at her office, she went to meet her husband at their club for a noon tee-time.
"When we went out to the tee, it was vacant but I was told I couldn't play because I was a female," she said. "In front of me walked an 18 or 19-year-old boy who, unaccompanied, goes up to the tee and tees off. I looked at my husband and said `someday I will change this'."
That was more than 10 years ago, but the persistence of the company executive paid off. Michigan has since passed legislation prohibiting discriminatory practices by country clubs. Apparently the objective was achieved by unambiguously defining a golf club as a place of public accommodation. Once that was done, clubs became subject to all anti-discriminatory laws.
It is clear, however, that legislation has been only partially successful in changing the perception of women as poor players who slow down the pace of play. "Apart from being seen as slower players, women are thought to inhibit the opportunity for male bonding and a good-ol'-boy, cigar-smoking, butt-slapping, joke-telling kind of environment," said former professional Carol Mann.
So, there remains a culture of limiting women's access to prime tee-times and to specific dining and drinking areas. "Through their working lives, women have been faced with this grass ceiling," said Cheryl Leonhardt, author of Breaking the Grass Ceiling: A Women's Guide to Golf for Business.
She went on to express a view which was echoed by Monica Barnes TD at the recent meeting with the ILGU, saying: "This `grass ceiling' is holding us back if we're not able to use golf as a business tool."
It is felt that as society changes, the need for businesswomen to play golf is changing. In that context, it seems extraordinary that such levels of discrimination should persist in a country where 28 per cent of all companies are owned by women. But they do.
Still, the fight goes on. "Men have daughters, most of whom have careers," said Nancy Oliver, founder of the Executive Women's Golf Association, which has 13,000 members. "In pursuit of those careers, there's a good chance they'll want to take up golf. And how does dad feel when he finds out his daughter wasn't treated fairly? It is up to these men to facilitate change."
