Clubs must make women welcome

For years they have been places where women have never felt at home - but now the Government is cracking down on clubs which refuse to give them full membership.

Banned from the bar and the library and mere onlookers as key decisions were made, women have been expected to count themselves lucky they are allowed in at all.

Now, however, golf clubs and gentlemen's clubs face being banned from offering second-class "associate" memberships to women under the legislation to be debated today.

If the bill becomes law, private members' organisations, including the Conservative Carlton Club and 2,680 working men's clubs, will no longer be able to stop women using particular rooms and facilities and deny them the right to vote or stand for office. They will have to become either single-sex or offer equal membership to men and women.

The reform is being introduced under a private member's bill in the House of Lords due to receive its second reading today, but the Government will give it full backing and is seeking time for it to become law this session.

Associate memberships for women were adopted by clubs to allow a female presence while retaining privileges and voting rights for men. Barbara Roche, the Minister for Women, said the change was overdue. "In the year 2002, women in mixed clubs should have exactly the same rights as men. It's absolutely absurd that golf clubs should restrict playing times and access to the front door for women members."

The bill, tabled by Labour peer Lord Faulkner of Worcester, will remove the exemption from the Sex Discrimination Act for private members' clubs but will not affect genuinely single-sex organisations, such as the Women's Institute or the Scouts and Guides. It would apply to private clubs with 25 or more members and would apply equally to discrimination against men.

The reform plan is likely to lead to outrage in clubs such as the Carlton which has resisted pressure from the Conservative leadership to admit women on equal terms.

Despite the fact that most of London's clubs now admit both sexes, the Garrick, the Travellers', White's and Boodle's continue to bar women members. The Athenaeum voted to allow women members in March last year and the MCC did the same in 1999.