National Women’s Council backs case against Portmarnock

Published: Thursday, November 27, 2003

The National Women's Council of Ireland wholeheartedly supports the action of the Equality Authority in taking legal proceedings today at the District Court in Dublin, against Portmarnock Golf Club, to determine whether it is a 'discriminating club' under the terms of the Equal Status Act 2000.

'The Equal Status Act 2000 is a very important legal instrument with the capacity to test whether a club is discriminatory in its practice. NWCI and its affiliate groups, fully support the Equality Authority, which has such an important mandate to eliminate gender discrimination and to promote gender equality, in putting Portmarnock Golf Club to the test under the terms of the Act.

'This case is a very significant one from a gender equality perspective, given the pervasive nature and extent of gender based discrimination, including its practice in some golf clubs', stated Mary Kelly, Chairperson of the National Women's Council of Ireland.

Many other golf clubs, whose traditional culture and practice was to discriminate against women, have in consultation with their own members and with the Equality Authority, shifted their practice to be inclusive. The NWCI welcomes that constructive shift in practice towards gender equality.

However denial of full membership, 'in their own right' to women and lack of access to decision making structures in golf clubs, not only obstructs women as golfers but also restricts their opportunities for business networking. 'This exclusion has to be challenged as it symbolizes the level of sexism that continues to exist overtly and covertly in the wider society'. Examples include the gender pay gap, the low representation of women in key decision making positions and the massive under representation of women in 'top jobs'. Last week, the UK report on FTSE 100 companies and RTE's trawl of the Ireland's top ten companies (who between them have only six women in 137 top board jobs) verify that sexism persists and effectively restricts even these professional women. Its consequences for marginalised women are devastating. In the interests of all women the NWCI will continue to challenge gender inequality and to support those agencies which defend it.