Women in Rotary

Posted by Bill Webster on Jan 11, 2017
 
As I was involved in preparing next week’s meeting notes I couldn’t help but think what Ken Cox said about diversity in seeking others for our Club!  I immediately began to search the internet and see what information was available regarding history of women in the Rotary Club! To my amazement there was plenty of HISTORY.   So please if you don’t mind I would like to share a little of what I found!
 
It is fascinating by the early reasons women were not considered for membership a century ago, the important roles women played and the many contributions they made as non-members, the eventual foresight that led to allowing females to join and the progressive successes resulting from that decision – as evidenced in our own club with several qualified and distinguished ladies serving as President – not to mention the major services they each continue to provide as Past Presidents.
 
Some of those early objections:
 
  • “I think it’s hard enough to handle 2 or 3 hundred men without having anything to do with ladies”. The topic was grist, of course, for newspapers nationwide who penned stories about Men Afraid of Women, Women Peril is Seen, Can’t Manage a Woman?, Men are Alarmed! And Rotarians Ban Fair Sex – Unmanageable.
  •  “The admission of women members to the Rotary Club of Chicago is unthinkable, Rotarians are family men whose wives are home-makers and mothers, period”.
  • “Traditions are worth fighting for and we joined a MEN”S CLUB and should have the right to pick our own members”.
  • “We won’t be able to tell jokes around the table if women join Rotary” “My wife would never let me attend Rotary if women were at the meetings”.
  • “Some cultural or religious standards prohibit co-mingling men and women in public.
  • Would it not cause a crisis should a female R from one country insist on attending a R meeting in a strict Islamic nation?” This was, and remains a valid question today.
 
When the Minneapolis Women’s RC began in 1911, its founder, Ida Buell, was granted permission a year later to address the R Convention and asked for support in establishing similar clubs in other cities. But no action was taken. In 1918 the International Board suggested clubs should discourage such organizations from using the name Rotary or Rotarians! Auxiliaries was OK but no reference to R. Next came the Rotary Anns: In 1914 Rotarian Henry Brunier and his wife Ann boarded a special train for the convention. Since Ann was the only woman on the train for most of the trip, the Rotarians began calling her Rotary Ann. Once at the convention, they met Guy and Ann
Gundaker and the 2 Anns began their pursuit of Club recognition which resulted in many Ladies’ committees – usually headed by the wife of the Club’s President. Henry Brunier was Rotary International President in 1923-24 and Guy Bundaker was RIP in 1952-53.
 
Some Dates to Remember
 
1987
On 4 May, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that Rotary clubs may not exclude women from membership on the basis of gender. Rotary issues a policy statement that any Rotary club in the United States can admit qualified women into membership.
The Rotary Club of Marin Sunrise, California (formerly Larkspur Landing), is chartered on 28 May. It becomes the first club after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling to have women as charter members.
1989
At its first meeting after the 1987 U.S. Supreme Court decision, the Council on Legislation votes to eliminate the requirement in the RI Constitution that membership in Rotary clubs be limited to men. Women are welcomed into Rotary clubs around the world.
1990
As of June, there are about 20,200 female Rotarians worldwide. The Rotarian runs a feature on women in Rotary.
 
Women in the Rotary Club of Killeen Heights (notes from the editor)
 
The first female Rotarian in our club was Patsy Derr in September of 1988. She went on to be our first female club president (1994-95) AND our district's first female District Governor (2000-01). For those of us lucky to have known Pat, we know that she did NOT want to be mentioned as the "first woman" ANYTHING--she was "just a Rotarian."  
 
Women comprise 26% of our current members! But don't go looking for women who might want to be Rotarians, look for potential members who would make good Rotarians AND happen to be women!