Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden - GOLF

In 1932, the Augusta National Golf Club was founded by Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts. The club is exclusively male, and up until 1990 it was exclusively white as well. Recently, the club has received much scrutiny in the media for its apparent refusal to accept new IBM CEO Virginia Rometty, simply because she is a woman. Over the years the club has held the Masters, the Super Bowl of golf where the premier golfers in the world compete for the coveted green jacket.

Unfortunately, women have not had the opportunity to even compete. One would think that in 2012 this issue would no longer exist. Golf is not a contact sport; therefore it would be possible for women and men to compete on the same level. This is a classic example of sexism in sports, a war on women. This reinforces the idea of women being marginalized from the social norm.

Is this a power struggle? An attempt for these men to remain above the rest of society? Virginia Rometty is an extremely knowledgeable and successful woman. She has clearly proven herself a capable individual in the business world and in some cases more prosperous then her male counterparts that are members of this exclusive club. So why the discrimination? The past four CEOs of IBM were invited to join the Augusta National Golf Club. All of them having one very important characteristic in common, they were all male. Bobby Payne, the chairman of the club is using body politics to assert his masculinity as power over Virginia Rometty and all other women who wish to be members.

Payne was extensively questioned about the matter. As he dodged the topic his response was, "I guess two reasons. One, we don't talk about our private deliberations. Number two, we especially don't talk about them when a named candidate is part of the question." As of now, Virginia Rometty still has not received an invitation to join this exclusive, all male club. Perhaps with enough pressure from the media, Payne and other members will alter the club's long standing bias towards the female gender. However, would it even be worth it at this point?

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"Masters 2012: Augusta chairman quizzed over no-women policy ." Sport. BBC, 5 Apr. 2012. Web. 10 Apr. 2012. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/golf/17622150>.