May 2003

| Am Woman, Hear Me “Fore!”

Erin Culhane OP Contributor

When I first heard of Martha Burk, my reac- tion was a smug, “Oh, get over yourself. Find a cause worth fighting and golf somewhere else.”

Burk, the Chairwoman of the National Council of Women’s Organizations, has been protesting the men-only membership policy of Augusta National Golf Club, citing it discrimi- natory. According to Golf Magazine, “When she read about Augusta's lack of female mem- bers during last year’s Masters, Burk realized she had found an issue. But her immediate goal was not gaining publicity. She waited until the next NCWO board meeting and got approval to send (Hootie) Johnson (Augusta’s chairman) a letter. ‘It was a private letter. I expected a pri- vate reply,’ she siad. Ten minutes after she'd read the letter, a reporter called and read her Johnson's three-page public broadside, in which he insisted that Augusta ‘will not be bullied.”

Burk went ahead and protested the Masters tournament (where good Canadian boy Mike Weir won the green jacket!), and received media coverage—both positive and negative.

Okay, so I’m thinking-there’s women-only gyms, why can’t there be men-only golf clubs? What's the biggie? Then I heard a caller during a radio program say, “Why would she want to go where she isn’t welcome?” Ah-ha. Suddenly I saw the flip side of that argument-why would she let someone's opinion or what she feels is an antiquated policy get in the way of where she wants to go and what she wants to do? Maybe- Martha is all right...

I felt a sampling of that what-do-you-mean- I-can't-do-it indignation, while watching a minor hockey game with a group of men-pret- ty much your typical old boys club. Upon see- ing a female on the coaching staff, more than one of them said, “What the hell is a woman doing behind the bench?” C’mon—let’s step out of the Stone Age here, fellas. And how about the women’s Olympic hockey team? | heard complaints from more than a few men about how “slow” the women’s games were. “It’s like watching Midget B hockey,” said one male friend. ‘K, here’s a news flash for all the boys— youre bigger, stronger, and faster. We're the

smaller, weaker, slower and far less hairy sex.

Whenever I start analyzing this stuff, I can’t help but think about the issues that face women in other parts of the world, whether they are forbidden to vote or the right to an education, or where they face such atrocities as female cir- cumcision and stonings for having sex outside of marriage. And Martha’s all burned up ‘cause she can’t use her nine iron at Augusta?

As a woman, it’s hard to stand far enough back of the issue to really see what it’s about. I like to be a person first, before the battle of the sexes turns me into an anything-boys-can-do- girls-can-do-better freak. So if the issue is one of discrimination against women, what about discrimination against men? How come my daughter can join Scouts (when I grew up it was Boy Scouts) but my son can’t join Girl Guides? Sometimes it seems like because women were oppressed for so long and denied the rights afforded to men, the hard-core femi- nist movement will not rest until there is a women in every position of power and men are walking around pregnant in stilettos, with coifed hair, slaving over a hot stove, and threat- ening the young ‘uns with “You just wait until your mother gets home.”

I’m sure Martha is waiting patiently for my blessing, so I'll go ahead and say it-I think she should keep it up. She’s actually getting some- where. According to USAToday.com, “Thomas Wyman, former CEO of CBS, turned in his green jacket to protest the lack of women mem- bers, before passing away several months ago...And six prominent members wrote letters to Burk saying they supported admitting female members...” And let’s face it, Augusta’s policy is old and crusty, which is clearly illus- trated by the fact that they didn’t allow their first black member until 1990. They deserve to get shaken up.

Wow, it’s sure challenging to be a woman sometimes...but we can handle it. We are, after all the smarter sex.

Whether you're fanatically feminist, painfully prehistoric or somewhere in between, send your thoughts to <takingissue@telus.net>.

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Martha Burk