A Question of Civil Rights or of Freedom of Association? : All-Male Organizations Face a Dilemma: Whether to Admit Women

Restaurateur Roni Bauer was supposed to be inducted as a Kiwanis Club member last month but when she showed up, the members who had invited her had second thoughts. They worried that admitting a woman could doom their chapter.

“Our 60-year-old club would be finished,” said Skip Ahalt, a longtime member of the club in Hollywood, Fla., voicing others’ fears about defying a Kiwanis International rule excluding women. “That to me is a more important issue than accepting a girl at this time.”

The Hollywood group’s quandary was typical.

Re-Examining Policies

Around the nation, men-only groups are re-examining their policies, lawyers are pressing women’s demands for admission to the social and professional advancement network that they say the groups represent, and courts are being asked to clarify where privacy rights end and discrimination begins.

- The men-only Bohemian Club that claims President Reagan as a member is due in court this month to defend its claim that hiring female employees would detract from the spirit of its gatherings in the Northern California woods.

- The Detroit City Council last month passed an ordinance that would tear down no-women-allowed signs by reclassifying now-private groups as public. The ordinance is modeled on a New York City law that’s being challenged.

- The Union League in Philadelphia recently voted to drop its exclusion of women that had stood since the club was founded in the Civil War. But the Kiwanis, Rotary and Lions clubs have voted to remain all-male.

“Now we can put this matter behind us,” said Union League President Robert G. Wilder after the vote, which came as Philadelphia’s City Council considered a bill that would have prohibited the group from keeping women out.

“I know that left behind, too, will be any rancor between members who have had opposing views on this matter,” he said.

But the debate is not quieted easily.

Right to Associate

At stake, according to men’s groups, is the right to associate with whomever one pleases, guaranteed by the First Amendment, along with privacy rights.

“Why destroy that?” said Aubrey C. King of the Conference of Private Organizations in Washington.

“We’re not here defending any kind of organization--all-male or all-female,” he said. “But we don’t want the government deciding” membership.

Group Ruled Not Private

In 1984, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Minnesota Jaycees chapter could not exclude women under a state statute barring discrimination in “public accommodations.” The court said the Jaycee chapter--a large, not highly selective group sometimes involved in commercial ventures--was not truly private.

The justices said Minnesota’s broad definition of public accommodations “reflects a recognition of the importance . . . of removing the barriers to economic advancement and political and social integration that have historically plagued certain disadvantaged groups, including women.”

Or, as Jennifer Brown phrased it: “The old-boys network: it’s a very real thing.”

Brown is president of the National Organization for Women chapter in New York City, which lobbied for that city’s ordinance.

Restrictions Listed

Under it, a club is prohibited from discriminating in choosing members if it has more than 400 members, regularly offers meals and receives fees from non-members using the club for business purposes.

Detroit’s City Council passed a similar ordinance--not long after the Detroit Athletic Club voted to continue excluding women.

Many women take the exclusion personally, acknowledged King, of the Conference of Private Organizations. “Here is this one corner of life that they’re still excluded from. That just grates them enormously. But is that frustration justification for denying others’ rights to associate freely?”

He doubted that any group was “all-powerful,” ensuring access to the local political or professional power structure.

Groups as Power Centers

What about groups like the University Club in New York and the Cosmos Club in Washington? “The most powerful people in the country are members of those groups,” asserted E. Richard Larson, national staff counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union.

In smaller towns, Larson said, service groups are made up of those who are most influential locally, but “women and minorities have been traditionally left out.”

No federal law specifically outlaws sex discrimination by private clubs, Larson said.

Nixon Executive Order

An executive order issued by President Nixon bars federal contracts with employers who discriminate on the basis of sex, but Larson charged: “This Administration isn’t enforcing it.”

In Washington, spokesmen for the Labor and Justice departments denied Larson’s allegation. Justice spokesman John Wilson said the Administration’s record on filing sex discrimination complaints is “outstanding and requires no defense.”

Women suing men’s groups often do so under local anti-discrimination ordinances or state laws, like those of Oregon, New Jersey, New York and California.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the Rotary Club of Duarte, Calif., whose charter was revoked by Rotary International when the chapter accepted women members. Justice William Rehnquist left intact a California appeals court ruling last March that the parent organizations could not oust the Duarte chapter for admitting women.

Reagan and Bohemian Club

The Bohemian Club goes before the California Court of Appeal this month to defend its refusal to employ women at conclaves at Bohemian Grove, north of San Francisco. The club says Reagan is a member. Five years ago, a spokesman for Reagan said he would not resign; when asked recently whether the President still belonged, White House spokesmen said they could not get an answer.

In Austin, Tex., after state Rep. Anita Hill was shooed from a men’s club meeting--told that “a bunch of women sound like a gaggle of magpies”--other legislators boycotted the club until it opened to women.

In Salt Lake City, Megan Marie Peters won a suit against the Alta Club for denying her membership, but she is still not a member. A judge ruled that the club had violated state law barring sex discrimination in establishments licensed to sell 3.2% beer. Rather than admit women, the club quit selling beer; it still serves hard liquor under another license.