When Canada was considered by Great Britain mature enough to govern itself back in 1867 it was men who elected our first Parliamentarians and Prime Minister John A. Macdonald. In fact, it was not until 1920 that Canada and the USA considered women worldly enough to give them the right to vote. Just 40 to 50 years ago women were expected to choose vocations like teacher, nurse, office secretary, and clerk. Vocations like accountant, engineer, geologist, business owner and lawyer were mainly the domain of the so called more learned gender, men.
Just 40 to 50 years ago formal applications, such as for credit or employment, started out by asking for head of household, spouse, citizenship, nationality, race, religion. It wasn't until the Civil Rights Movement took hold in the United States during the decade of the sixties that Women's Rights also became an issue and rapidly moved to fruition within Canada and the United States, but much slower in most other parts of the world. Unfortunately, beyond North American boarders, married women today are still often introduced as Mrs John Smith, not Susan and John Smith. Since the inception of Rotary International in 1905, Rotary Club membership has been by invitation, mainly of business and professional community leaders. Although the Charter granted to each Rotary Club by Rotary International specified male only membership, thirty years ago a progressive thinking Rotary Club in California invited and inducted two women into their club. This was in contravention of the Club Charter. The Rotary International Board had no authority to change the terms of the charter. It can only be done by a resolution amending the bylaw at a Council on Legislation meeting and requires a two thirds vote to make the change. When the club refused to remove the women from membership Rotary International had no choice but to cancel the Club Charter. Rotary is the oldest and largest service club organization on this planet, with clubs in most nations. It is strictly none political, religious, racial and political. It has a great history of international achievement from being the instigator and leader in forming the United Nations to now nearly eliminating Polio from the face of Earth. It is highly democratic with representation by population on the International Board of Directors. When it came to including women as members, the Board realized it would be extremely difficult to build a cultural consensus for change in the more than 150 nations where it has clubs. Therefore, when the California Club contested the Club Charter cancellation decision in the legal system, the Board contested it right up to the California Supreme Court and ultimately lost. Now Rotary was compelled by law to accept women as members in California clubs. It was expected that this ruling would proliferate into other States and Canadian Provinces. To not let Rotary become divided culturally, it needed to gain a global consensus for women to be accepted into membership world wide. This could only be done by the Council on Legislation. The Council on Legislation met every third year. Its membership is selected very democratically. Each Rotary District elects one representative to attend the meeting. And, bylaw additions and changes can be proposed by clubs, districts and RI Board. The slightly over 500 delegates at the 1986 Council on Legislation considered a number of bylaw amendments to include women members in Rotary and all failed to get a two thirds majority. This created great consternation for the RI Boards for the next three years. While one of Rotary's strengths was doing a great job of bridging cultural customs and values, now the issue of women in Rotary was hurting it. The next Council on Legislation meeting, in early 1989, was held in Singapore. As delegates, we were told to come for an extra couple of days. Admitting woman into Rotary membership was the first item for consideration. Debate lasted for three days. Elegant presentations were made for both sides of the issue. Straw polls were taken at various stages of the debate. They need to not just pass the vote, but have a large contingency of delegates go back to their districts and explain convincingly the merit of the decision. Finally, at the end of debating for three days, the vote was called. It passed with 72% approval. Today most Rotary Clubs in North America accept women members with open arms. What a great pool of talent! For example, there is little doubt that the achievement level of the Squamish Club (2008 District 5040 Club of the Year) would not be as spectacular as it is without women members. They bring diligent, talented, thoughtful and caring leadership â?Ã'¦ not because of gender, but because of their citizenship values. In many other parts of the Rotary world women membership in clubs is slowly becoming a reality. Over time humanity will come to accept that it is not the gender of the person that makes the difference, it is the characteristics of the individual. Woman or man, both have similar abilities.