Bossy Girl Demands to Join Club That Doesn’t Want Her

Groucho Marx would never join a club that would accept him as a member. On the other hand, certain women are determined to barge their way into any clubs that just don’t want them.

HESTA chief Debby Blakey has added her voice to the growing chorus against The Australia Club, lashing the Sydney gentleman’s club online for its vote against allowing women to join, and drawing parallels to diversity in executive leadership.

In a note on LinkedIn titled, “The death knell of the Australia Club”, she alluded to former prime ministers, though not explicitly mentioning the likes of John Howard or Malcolm Turnbull, saying: “leaders should carefully consider what their ongoing membership of a club that enshrines discrimination in its operations signals to the community”.

The Australia Club is a private organisation and, it should be noted, perfectly entitled to its membership policy.

The post has so far garnered support from plenty in the super sphere, including Club Plus Super chief Stefan Strano, and her fellow boardmate at HESTA Klaus Zimmermann.

The Australian

So, this is yet another “woke” push by union superannuation funds.

The exclusive club, with its secretive membership list that extends from Mr Howard and Malcolm Turnbull to other political, corporate and judicial figures, has been deeply divided over whether to allow women to join.

Both Mr Howard and Mr Turnbull attended the Tuesday vote[…]

The Australian Club is one of several men-only social institutions in the country, alongside Melbourne’s Savage Club, where prominent barrister Julian Burnside was a member until the 2019 federal election in which he ran as a Greens candidate and quit the club, describing it as a “relic”.

In other words, Burnside was happy to enjoy the privilege of membership until it became a liability to his hilariously failed political ambitions.

Then there’s this tiny admission:

There are also women-only social clubs, including the Queen’s Club in Sydney.

The Australian

The Queen’s Club is literally around the corner from the Australia Club.

If that’s too far for our privileged CEO to go, there’s always the Women’s Club in Sydney (three guesses about its membership rules). Then there’s the Lyceum Club in Melbourne, or the Brisbane Women’s Club. Should she not want to drag herself away from the office, there’s the online The Sorority.

Then, of course, there’s are entire chains of women-only venues, like the Curves gymnasium.

Oddly enough, Ms Blakey isn’t in a hurry to chip her perfectly manicured nails, hammering away at yet another keyboard campaign against a “lack of diversity”, when it comes to women-only clubs.

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