HC Deb 23 June 1999 vol 333 cc1179-80

4.2 pm

Mr. Derek Wyatt (Sittingbourne and Sheppey)

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to establish that where men and women are granted access to public or private buildings they are granted equal access; and for connected purposes. If I suggested to you, Madam Speaker, that there were Rooms in the Palace of Westminster—apart from public conveniences—not open equally to all its Members, whatever their sex, you would be angry. I am angry because many of our sports clubs up and down the country are still closed to women.

For example, Mrs. Joyce Rayner, honorary secretary of the ladies' section of Faversham recreation bowling club in my next-door constituency, wrote to me saying: I am secretary of the ladies' section … our ladies are treated like second class citizens. We pay exactly the same subscriptions as the men, but we are not allowed any involvement in the administration of the Club, no voting rights and are not even allowed to attend their AGM. Mrs. Sue Birch, commenting about her golf club, the Robin Hood golf club in Solihull, said: You may be interested to hear of my recent attempts to overcome the problems I face within my golf club as a woman who cannot vote in club affairs. There are in excess of 250 men and women in my club, who cannot vote and who cannot be selected for or serve on the committee. In addition, because of being a woman, I am not allowed to play until after 4pm on Saturdays and until after lunch on Sundays and I cannot enter the snooker room. Let us consider this extraordinary tale from Little Aston golf course in the west midlands where a club rule bans women from the "confines of the club" on Saturdays and Sundays. Reacting to the news that her husband had suffered a stroke or heart attack on the course, his wife rushed to his side. She climbed into the ambulance and was taken to hospital. She left her car in the club car park. Some weeks later she received a letter from Little Aston golf club committee saying that she had broken the weekend rule, and was asked to desist from such action in the future.

My next example is perhaps even worse. An American visitor paused as he was about to enter the clubhouse at Royal St. George's golf course. He was filled with doubts about whether his wife would be admitted. To spare her any embarrassment he approached an elderly member in the car park to clarify the situation. The elderly member said, "I am not sure about women—I would have to ask—but we do allow dogs in." Sadly, that sort of thing is a common occurrence across many of the golf courses and sports clubs in this country.

Mrs. Susan Cummings from Tamworth wrote to me about Drayton park golf club, saying that ladies can play on Saturdays at any time except, however, in summer when men's competitions take place and the course is closed to women until after 4 pm. On Sundays, women cannot tee off until after 1 o'clock.

Mrs. Codd from Mayfield in East Sussex writes: As a working lady golfer I have direct experience of the sorts of blatant discrimination that you are seeking to abolish …In the last year a few of us have been pressing for voluntary change, but have met stalwart resistance at various levels. For instance one lady was told she was militant. Another was forced to resign from one of our committees for daring to express her views on the subject of equality in the media—even though she did not name the club—which were she was told at variance with that of the board of management. Needless to say our board is all male and no women have ever sat on it. The men's captain does of course. Traditionally ladies have (unpaid voluntary) responsibility for running their sections, thus saving clubs thousands of pounds each year", but they have no vote.

The problem is not with golf alone: I could tell tales of unequal access and opportunity in other sports. In soccer, for instance, we have a registered FIFA female agent who is unofficially banned from the men-only boardrooms at football clubs on Saturdays, yet she is in charge of a considerable number of talented men footballers. She is banned from the professional footballers' annual national dinner, which I am glad that my hon. Friend the Minister for Sport also declined to attend because she was not admitted.

I commend to the House the Equal Opportunities Commission report "Equality in the 21st Century: a New Sex Equality Law for Britain". Page 8 states: The EOC continues to receive many complaints about the rules and practices of private members' clubs. These clubs are not controlled by the Sex Discrimination Act because they are not concerned with the public. However, we believe the omission of private clubs results in various discriminatory rules and arrangements which support stereotypical images of men and women and limit women's participation in club activities. I could not agree more.

The nub of the Bill is that it cannot be right that, in public or private buildings or clubs to which men and women have access, access should be determined by sex only. In sport, that has been the case for more than a century. As we attempt to modernise our society, we must at the very least permit women equal access and opportunity.

The Bill would improve on the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and I commend it to the House.

Question put and agreed to.

Bill ordered to be brought in by Mr. Derek Wyatt, Ms Claire Ward, Mr. John Maxton, Mr. Jonathan Shaw and Mr. Robert Marshall-Andrews.