Scandal puts spotlight on boys’ clubs in Europe

BERLIN — When the Financial Times on Wednesday reported on harassment at a recent London charity event, the fallout was swift. Within hours, Britain’s House of Commons launched investigations and Prime Minister Theresa May expressed her discomfort. Meanwhile, charity recipients, attendees and donors hurried to distance themselves — and late Wednesday, the trust itself shut down with immediate effect.

For 33 years, the Presidents Club Charitable Trust had organized an annual fundraising dinner — for male members only.

The revelations remained Britain’s lead story Thursday, with the focus now turning toward other clubs that only accept male members, even if they may not directly or indirectly encourage the sort of sexual harassment revealed by the Financial Times at the Presidents Club.

“It is worth remembering that many senior establishment men cling firmly to their right to spend time in men-only environments outside of the world of finance,” wrote Guardian reporter Amelia Gentleman on Thursday. “Anyone shocked by the idea of 360 men from business, politics and finance gathering at the all-male Presidents Club annual dinner should note that men-only clubs continue to flourish throughout London.”

In fact, men-only clubs still appear to exist across much of Europe, including in France, Britain and Germany. In the British capital, a number of clubs still don’t accept female members, even though women are often allowed to join men as guests. Frequented by leading figures in business, politics, media and other professions, those clubs have withstood decadeslong attempts to get women accepted.

In Britain and France, courts so far not have used gender equality laws to rule against the practices. Proponents of the men-only membership associations have referred to the existence of female-only sports clubs, saying that they could similarly be found guilty of gender discrimination if such laws were deployed.

But elsewhere, men-only clubs have faced more robust legal resistance. In 1987, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously to outlaw Rotary Clubs’ reluctance to accept female members in a decision which had implications across the nation, and set a legal precedent. The landmark ruling came decades before similar trials got underway in Europe, even though men-only sports clubs are still not entirely a thing of the past in the United States, either. Some of the last U.S. holdouts — among them the Augusta National golf club — only recently announced a change of course.