Since the founding of Rotary in 1905, when membership was restricted to men by the Rotary Constitution, there were many appeals by clubs made to allow women to become members. There were also many attempts by the wives of Rotarians to be formally included in the club.
In 1914 at the Rotary Conference in Houston, Texas, two wives, both named Ann, who were helping their husband’s clubs with activities attended. They were acknowledged at this meeting as Rotary ‘Anns’. The name then stuck to all groups of Rotarian wives in North America thereafter.
In 1924 a group of women in England calling themselves the ‘Inner Wheel Club’, composed of ‘wives and womenfolk of Rotarians and past Rotarians’ was organized. It soon spread to ninety eight other countries with over one hundred thousand members but never really caught on in North America. In North America the informal groups of Rotary Anns endured.
A study done by Rotary in 1934 suggested that women were ‘unthinkable’ as Rotarians, as Rotarians were married men whose wives were already busy as homemakers and mothers. It was commonly thought that women would interfere with the fellowship at meetings and were thus to be excluded. In practice though, the ‘womenfolk’ did a large portion of the planning and organization required for the community services that Rotary performed and also did the same for most Rotary social functions.
At the 1950 Rotary Convention in India it was first proposed that the word male be deleted from the constitution. The proposal failed and subsequent proposals by other countries were also withdrawn over the years.
Our club was formed in 1974. Not all clubs in the Edmonton area at that time had a Rotary Ann group, but our club did. It was a tradition started by Betty Germaine, whose husband John Germaine was the first President of our club. They had come from the Red Deer Club and that club also had a very active Rotary Ann group. Betty insisted that our club should have this group as it gave the wives a chance to get together for a lady’s nite, have fun and get to know each other. This in turn made them feel more at ease and happy to come to the more formal social Rotary occasions with their husbands.
These women would get together once a month for a social occasion of some kind that was planned by two people who were chosen at the previous gathering. It was always the president’s wife who was expected to keep the Rotary Ann’s involved. The lady’s nite could be any kind of thing ranging from tea and coffee in someone’s home to attending a movie or the opera, trying out a new restaurant, travelling dinners, sewing, learning yoga or belly dancing. As long as they had fun and enjoyed each other’s friendship. They had a phoning committee that would call to personally invite the others to their gatherings and also offer transportation if needed and they always made a point of including widows of past members in their activities.
This ladies group did a large part of the planning for social occasions for the whole Rotary club such as summer BBQs, formal Christmas parties, the Governor’s visit dinner, children’s Christmas parties, golf tournaments, sleigh rides and on and on. Some prominent members of this group over the years were Betty Germaine, Joyce Flesher, Lillian McCullough, Brenda McCullough, Valerie Solash, Bernadette Raynor and Linda Granholm. Everyone knew each other well and they formed many lasting friendships between wives and the children of Rotarians that have continued over the years.
It was not until 1978 when a club in Duarte, California whose membership in Rotary International had been terminated for allowing women into their club sued Rotary International for violation of their Civil Rights that things began to change. After almost ten years of grinding it’s way through the courts, the US Supreme Court finally heard the appeal and on the 4 May 1987 they ruled that Rotary could not exclude women from membership on the basis of gender. The Duarte club then got their Charter back from Rotary International. Based on a similar Canadian law, after an appeal by a Rotary club in Quebec, the Rotary International Board of Directors issued a policy statement in Oct 1988 that recognized the rights of Rotary Clubs in Canada to admit female members. This was quite controversial in many clubs but Rotary International had spoken. Our club subsequently voted to officially include women in our club and women Rotarians were warmly welcomed into our club a few years later.
Once women began joining the club itself and especially once a woman became President of the club it became too much to expect them to also keep the Rotary Ann group going and it slowly became less and less active.
1994 Governor’s Newsletter announcing our first Women Club Members, Barb Craig and Diana Parker
In 1994 our club welcomed it’s first women members, Barb Craig and Diana Parker. The next women to join our club were Heather deKok in 2001, Rose Marie Basaraba in 2004, Donna Hutton in 2010 and Carin Jansen vanVuuren in 2014.
All of these women have served as Presidents of our Club, Barb in 1999-2000, Diana in 2004-5, Heather in 2010-11 and again currently in 2023-24, Rose Marie in 2013-14, Donna in 2019-20 and Carin in 2021-22. Another almost thirty year Rotarian is Brenda McCullough who originally joined the Riverview club in 1994 and subsequently joined our club in 2014.
Since 2015 we have had many more women join our club, they now form about fifty percent of our membership, and are integral part of all club activities.
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