Club finally allows women to join
One of the nation’s last clubs to bar women members has voted, finally, to open its doors to both sexes.
The Hawke’s Bay Club, founded in 1863, and housed in a handsome heritage building on Napier’s Marine Parade, has never previously allowed women to join the club.
A meeting held at the club on Wednesday night saw members vote 89-25 to allow women to join the club.
The club’s website stated the membership comprises business owners, farmers, accountants, doctors, solicitors and stockbrokers. ‘‘It is, in fact, a reflection of society.’’
President Marc Nel said the club was now ‘‘open to all sexes’’.
‘‘It’s a great step.We already have a number of people wanting to join and so on, but it’s really about wanting to be a modern club rather than anything else,’’ he said. He said the rules around how women would join had yet to be finalised.
‘‘When you look at the other clubs around the country the female membership makes up about 20 per cent, but it takes a while.
‘‘There is no discrimination. There is no special membership for women and special membership for men. It’s open,’’ he said.
Members would still have to be invited, proposed, seconded and go before the club committee.
‘‘It’s not by application,’’ Nel said. The club’s decision leaves the Nelson Club as the only club in the country that excludes women members.
But an appetite for change appears to brewing in Nelson too, with seven members resigning last year over the club’s male-only policy.