Private Clubs and Women

Although it is refreshing to see George Will invoking Marx to denounce the privileges of the ruling class, his denunciations are strikingly one-sided. He castigates the women who seek admission to the all-male clubs covered by New York’s anti-discrimination law for their elitism and rampant ambition. The male members of such clubs, however, come under no such criticism. Will portrays their motives for membership in constitutional dimensions: the men merely seek to be “let alone” in their “havens from women.” Where was Will’s concern for those excluded from membership when the clubs remained bastions of all-male power?

Will argues that the right not to be discriminated against becomes trivialized when affluent women claim it. The same argument applies, however, to the associational rights claimed by the affluent male members of the clubs in question. The First Amendment freedom of assembly is surely more important to the powerless who seek a voice in society than to those who by virtue of their wealth and status already possess ample political power.

Will’s class-based test for determining the proper application of the civil-rights laws (they should only “protect the weak”) would send a message to women and minorities that they have a right to be free from discrimination so long as they remain weak. Once they approach the upper echelons of society, however, they may lawfully be discriminated against.

Although Will professes agreement with the court’s ruling, his eulogy for privacy rights ignores the court’s finding that the clubs covered by New York’s law are not private for purposes of constitutional analysis. Indeed it strains credulity to claim that employers would regularly pay for their employees’ membership in such clubs if the employers did not perceive a significant commercial benefit from that membership. Will’s criticism of the women plaintiffs for their insatiable appetites for deal-making in fact presupposes that the clubs are an important forum in business culture.

Will’s attempt to play the part of populist reformer is not persuasive. Clearly what irks him about the case is not that the clubs wield power but that women should presume to share in that power.

HEATHER MacDONALD

Pacific Palisades