WELCOME LADIES
Which brings us to one of the great steps forward for the club. In 1978, the year our club was chartered, the Rotary Club of Duarte, California, admitted three women into membership. It was contrary to the constitution of Rotary and the club’s charter was withdrawn. The three women members and the Duarte Club took the matter to court. Following ten years of litigation, in 1987, the United States Supreme Court ruled that woman should be allowed to be members of Rotary.
The Rotary International Board, probably with a sigh of relief, immediately took actions that would, in the following year, change Rotary’s constitution and set in place a process to adjust all documents to remove any wording that might be interpreted as referring to men only. They also encouraged clubs to actively recruit women members. Our Board decided we should take the lead to actively recruit women to be members of the club.
Needless to say, some members were not too happy with that decision and declared they would leave the club if women joined; and, later, true to their word, they did. Others were concerned that, to accommodate the sensitivities of women members, we’d have to curb the competitive banter that added light and laughter to our meetings,
We soon discovered it was actually easier to agree to have women Rotarians than it was to recruit women to join. President Jim Ayers wisely insisted that we needed to begin by inducting two strong women to be the pioneers, who would support one another. The search was on.
Gay took on the job of being the first woman to be our president. She applied her sharp wit and organizational skills and never tired of saying she had to keep “you fellows” in line. Her quick wit served her well. When she was fine master she often began with; “Are you awake Ron? Jim, you’ll love this one. Behave yourself Billy.” Usually her jokes were from the latest Readers’ Digest, which added to the laughter. |
On April 20th, 1990 two women were inducted: Jenny Amy, a Library Consultant, and, Gay McDermott, Vice President of Nursing, Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital. It all went smoothly; although, later, Jenny reported that, while she felt welcome, one of our past presidents made a point, on the day they joined, that he’d voted against having women members. Jim Ayres was right, we had recruited two great ladies, who quickly became stellar members and paved the way for the many women who followed their path.
The club adjusted so well that we had great fun when we threw a baby shower for Kristin Baird. As far as we can tell it was a first for Rotary. Oh, yes, the two members did resign. One of them, Barry Kay rejoined the club and soon afterward his daughter became a member.
The photo below is some of the club ladies in 2013.
