Muirfield golf club controversy: Where are women still not allowed?

The Scottish golf club Muirfield has been widely admonished after voting to uphold its men-only policy.

The club have, "at best, been left to look out of touch with modern thinking. At worst, they look like a bunch of selfish bigots who have no place at the top of the game," said the BBC's Iain Carter.

All-male bastions have been the subject of a slow, steady assault over the past few decades, but Muirfield is not the only establishment to maintain a ban.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Right honourable gentleman

A few male-only spaces remain in the world of London's gentlemen's clubs. Perhaps the most well-known is White's, of which Prime Minister David Cameron was a member until 2008. Defending his membership during his party's leadership contest in 2005, Cameron said, "I don't think we have to be politically correct in every aspect of our life."

Equality for all

In a similar vote last year, the Garrick club – frequented by some of the most senior judges and barristers in the country, as well as actors and writers – also opted to remain male-only. Women can be brought in as guests but there are some areas they are still not free to enter.

Baroness Hale, Britain's most senior female judge, said she found it quite shocking that so many of her colleagues belong to the club.

"Judges should be committed to the principle of equality for all," she added.

But the uncomfortable truth about male-only institutions says Simon Jenkins in The Guardian, is that the argument about women, is less about influence than about age. With an average age of 70 and over in some places, these institutions are more day-care centres than clubs, he writes.

"The argument that the 'presence' of women would distress 'the chaps' and would stop their 'camaraderie and banter' is sad rather than sexist," he adds.

Changing times

The dawning of 21st century has prompted many all-male institutions to change their ways. In 1999, the home of cricket, the MCC, opened its doors to female members for the very first time - and in 2007, the national network of working men's clubs offered women access to a full membership.

Even golf is beginning to change. The Royal and Ancient at St Andrews opened its membership to women in 2014 for the first time in its 260-year history, while Royal St George's in Kent lifted its ban on women last year.

Muirfield itself is rumoured to be planning a second ballot, with changes in regulations to make a yes vote more likely.