Despite the ongoing conflict in Iraq, millions will be watching this weekend to see if Tiger Woods can win an unprecedented third consecutive Masters golf tournament. But Mr. Woods and his fellow competitors may be distracted from their quest by militant gender feminists whose antics betray desperation and strange logic.
Augusta National, the private club that stages the Masters, allows women to play the course but not to be members of the club. According to feminist groups, this is further proof of the fact that all women in America are second-class citizens, victims of discrimination, and so on. As theatre calculated to grab publicity, this event is hard to beat.
Augusta National is in the south, enough in itself to evoke the image of discrimination and convince some that there must be evil afoot. Martha Burk, the 61-year-old chair of the National Council of Women's Organizations, wrote a letter to Augusta National chairman Hootie Johnson, a former banker with a name that evokes the "good old boy" stereotype. Mr. Johnson responded that, concerning the issue of women members, the club would move according to its own timetable.
This led Burk, who holds a PhD in "experimental psychology," to tee off. She wrote letters to club members and tried to leverage the sponsors. Mr. Johnson responding by arranging to have the tournament telecast without commercial interruption. Burk rushed to the barricades, with plans to protest the event.
Two congressional Democrats joined the fray with a resolution urging members of Congress, federal judges, and presidential appointees not to belong to a "club that discriminates on the basis of sex or race." Burk also garnered support from the ACLU and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a veteran publicity seeker and master at shaking down corporations. Locals braced for a circus atmosphere but the media missed the real story.
While golfers vie for the green jacket that goes to the winner, Martha Burk is using the event to seize the mantle of feminist leadership, which is not the same thing as representing women. Burk may be a relatively new face, but she represents no meaningful change.
Public policy is one thing, but in a free society private clubs have the right to set their own rules. It is quite natural that not everybody will like or agree with those rules. Some private colleges admit only women, and some feminist professors such as Mary Daly have banned male students from their classes, something that appears not to disturb Martha Burk. The ruckus she is stirring up at the Masters, one sports commentator said, is something the golfers do not need.
Tiger Woods said his mind would be on the game but that he believed women should be members. So do I. Lloyd Ward, one of the Augusta club's black members and a former head of the U.S. Olympic Committee, also backed membership for women, which will likely happen in due time.
Whatever one thinks of whether a private golf club in Georgia should admit women, this is not a defining issue for most women, busy with careers and families. Many women are also dealing with the real obstacles to their advancement, such as high taxes, onerous regulation, gender quotas, and government intrusion of the kind favored by Martha Burk.
Ms. Burk is using the Masters to promote herself and her agenda. A person and a movement that actually represented women would not have to exploit sporting events to make its case.
Sally Pipes is President and CEO at the California-based Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy. She can be reached via email at spipes@pacificresearch.org.
