While we have made real progress towards equality, Australia is still a long way from giving women the same recognition and encouragement as men.
Women have filled important leadership roles:governor-general and governor, prime minister, chief justice, chief of police, vice chancellor, major corporate board chairs and CEOs of top national and international companies.
The Athenaeum and other men-only clubs are behind their counterparts overseas in not allowing women members.
But how is it that single sex clubs which would fall over themselves to welcome as members men in any of those positions, cannot accept their female counterparts? Our society is moving on, but the clubs are stuck in an increasingly historic and inappropriate mode.
A survey of 700 members of Melbourne’s Athenaeum Club taken earlier this year and details of which were revealed this week, found 44 per cent supported the introduction of women members while 40 per cent opposed women membership outright.
The fact that 51 per cent were prepared to start a discussion on changing the men-only rule, the 154-year-old club and other men-only clubs in Melbourne, are still behind many of their international counterparts.
Australia, and particularly Melbourne, is a last bastion of single sex clubs. In the United States and Britain, there have been big changes. In the US for reasons of principle, in Britain because club leaders saw that their survival depended on recognising the changes in society and opening the doors to women.
In 2002, the Athenaeum in London opened its membership. Six members resigned, and the club soon became a far more dynamic and welcoming establishment. Across the ditch, The Wellington Club opened its membership 30 years ago.
But not here. Even where the surveys at the Athenaeum and the 144-year-old Australian clubs showed significant support for opening membership, club committees have been frightened off by the howls of the members still locked in the old ways.
The committees showed a preference for maintaining a male preserve rather than strengthening the character of their club and recognising societal change.
If the Athenaeum Club was to accept women as members, it would show important societal leadership and attract forward-looking men and women to its ranks. Rather than being an ordinary and indeed diminishing organisation like several of its counterparts, it could become a real centre for important interactions between the leaders of our total society, not a retreat for men who are escaping their wives.
This would not happen quickly. It would take time and careful strategy to attract new members and to transform the club culture. There would be some resignations providing space to allow this transformation to happen a little more quickly. And contemporary male leaders would also be keen to join.
As the researcher employed by the Athenaeum to conduct the survey found, in failing to grasp this opportunity, the club board is maintaining an increasingly irrelevant and minority attitude not shared by the real leaders of our corporate, political, academic and social worlds.
Sadly, as was the case in 2009 when a group of us sought to persuade the Athenaeum members to support change and put substance into the club’s claim to be engaging with our community, some of the strongest opponents were younger members, perhaps frightened of the competition they were facing in their professions and needing an escape from reality in their reassuring leather armchairs.
Disappointed that the club leadership refused to transform it to a contemporary and more relevant organisation, a group of us left and resolved to address the need for a place where all could bring their different perspectives. This eventually led to the formation of the Melbourne Forum.
It is time for courageous leadership at the single gender clubs. It is time for these once useful organisations to regain their value by reflecting and engaging with the total society, not excluding 50 per cent of the talent and capability.
Clubs should provide forums where men and women can share their different perspectives, build their understanding, mutual respect and inter-dependence and strengthen Australian society rather than providing a refuge for some who would prefer to turn back the clock.
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