I thought ‘How dare they have a puband keep women out..’ the men looked astounded when we walked in, the bar staff were raging
Instigator recalls her battle to get served as 1973 protest inspires new film
ANEW film will immortalise the moment when women called time on an Aberdeen bar’s sexist men-only rule.
In April 1973, women from the Scottish Trades Union Congress ripped the “No Ladies Please” sign from the door and stormed into The Grill bar in the city’s Union Street.
The protest had been sparked by Jacquie Blair, then a 22-year-old union activist, who was outraged when she saw the sign on her way to an STUC conference.
She recalled: “I brought it up at a round table at the conference. We were in the middle of discussing equal pay. I said, ‘We are trying to get equal pay and we can’t even get into a pub.’
“I thought, ‘How dare they have a pub and keep women out.’ I suggested we should go for a drink there when we finished.”
George Robertson, who later became NATO secretary-general, was at the meeting in Aberdeen’s Music Hall as the then Scottish organiser of the General, Municipal and Boilermakers’ Union.
He was later wrongly credited by the male newspaper reporters of the day as the main instigator of the protest.
Jacquie said: “It wasn’t him, it was me. It made me mad when I read he was given the credit. That in itself was sexist.”
When the meetings were over, they walked across to the bar.
Jacquie said: “It was quite busy when we walked in. Some of the men looked astounded. Their mouths were hanging open.”
One newspaper report said Eddie Watson, the pub owner, was greeted with “boos and cat-calls” when he told the gathered group: “Sorry, no ladies.”
He tried to close the doors but the women pushed forward and “within seconds the pub was full to capacity”.
This newspaper described it as a victory for “women’s lib”.
Jacquie said: “I fought my way to the front of the bar but they refused to serve me. They wouldn’t take money from any of the women. The bar staff were absolutely raging. The union men there bought the drinks.”
Staff told the women they would call the police and when officers arrived, two of them escorted Jacquie out the door as the Red Flag was sung.
She said: “It was reported as a stunt but it wasn’t. It was quite good-humoured but it was a real protest in the fight for equal rights.”
Jacquie had been a shop steward since she was 17 in a woollen mill in her home town of Greenock and knew all about sexism.
She said: “The way women were treated at
that time was absolutely sickening. It was a dark time but also a time of enlightenment and change for women. Women were taking a stand.
“At one union meeting they assumed I was the tea lady.
“A lot of the union men had a terrible attitude to things like equal pay.”
But they did sometimes like having her on board. When TV covered the conferences, the cameras would pan in on Jacquie, a pretty girl, and men would sit next to her hoping to secure screen time.
Her prowess as a passionate advocate for equality won her the admiration of Scottish miners’ leader Michael McGahey when she stood in solidarity with his men.
Jacquie said: “We have a long way to go for equality but I do think women like me were trailblazers who secured a lot of progress.”
Women were finally served in The Grill after the Sex Discrimination Act was passed in 1975, but a ladies’ loo wasn’t installed until 1998.
Three years ago, Jacquie’s daughter Julie went to the bar and was surprised to find a picture on the wall of her mum at the protest.
The bar, now run by Eddie’s son Graham, was voted “friendliest pub of the year” and attracts attention not just for its fine malts but also its history.
The film, No Ladies Please, was the idea of Dr Fiona-Jane Brown, a tour guide and local historian in Aberdeen, who came across the story when she was doing research for a reminiscence talk on pubs for Alzheimer Scotland.
She said: “There was still a 50s mindset in Aberdeen in the 70s and there were many working men’s pubs where women knew they wouldn’t be welcome.
“Here was a case of women just saying they had enough and I was glad to see it.”
She enlisted director Yvonne Heald and a host of local actors and they filmed it in seven days, using the city’s Fittie Bar, which is run by female publican Mandy Miller.
Fiona-Jane said: “It is a humorous, entertaining film but it has a very serious point. We want to show how women were trying and succeeding to change the status quo.
“This is the centenary of women getting the vote and I thought this was an important time to do this film.”
The project has been backed by Aberdeen City Council but they still need to crowd fund to finish the film and put it out to distribution.
Donate at gofundme. com/noladiesplz1973
It was reported as a stunt but it was a real protest JACQUIE BLAIR ON STORMING THE GRILL