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Social Clubs and rules for women history

Fairney View

knowlegable brummie
I'd like to fill out some social history of the sexism that seemed a "natural" part of life for women in 1960's etc . Mum(in Selly Oak, said women not allowed to be members of clubs their husbands went to, not allowed in snooker rooms - play card games etc But allowed to play Bingo!
Blogging about it on: https://julie-mcneill.blogspot.com
writing authentically.....
 
It was dying out by the end of the 60s, but there certainly used to be men only clubs (of all social ranks), rooms in pubs, etc.
There were women only places as well - railways had some station waiting rooms and carriage compartments solely for women's use, for instance. Some eastern countries still have this segregation - here is a compartment on a Japanese Keio Co. train.
 
Hi Julie.

This is a very interesting topic, and I look forward to learning more about the situation in and around Birmingham.

Membership of the Melbourne Club is still restricted to "gentlemen" (but the nearby Lyceum Club is for women only).

In earlier times, the saloon or public bar of an Aussie pub used to be a "no go" area for women. I can remember in the 1960s and 1970s when some young women made a point of going into a pub and staging a protest.

PS. Thanks for your fascinating blog, which I'm reading with great interest.
 
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untill 4 yrs ago women were not allowed into the snooker room at the social club i worked at
 
when I was a member of Castle Bromwich Mens club in the years around 1977 they had a very strict bar on women. Dont know what its like now though, assuming it is still going. There were quite a few clubs actually that had a bar on women well into the 80's and probably beyond.

Terry
 
I can remember mom and her friend not being allowed in the bar with dad and her friends hubby as women were only allowed in certain areas of the club, that would have been in the early 70s I guess.
I think the women of today would have something to say about that lol
Sue
 
I can remember, in the late 70s, going on a brewery trip to a black country brewery, I think it was Batham's., and being taken to the pub afterwrds for a (free)pint. There was only one women on the trip, but she liked her pint. However she was "somewhat irritated" to be told she could have 2 half pints, but could not be served a pint.
 
Thanks for this - thought I was writing a historical document about discrimination which ended with womens lib in the early 70's not rules(cultures) that went into into the 80's. As there is still gaping holes in womens(working class) history we must work to put it out there for those young ones who think their natural choices/ selections to enjoy life have always been there!
 
As I remember it there were issues with Working Men's Clubs and others much later than the 80s. I know my mother had trouble getting a proper membership to the United Services Club in central Birmingham and I'm not sure she had managed it by the time she died (90s) although the USC did turn out for the funeral. They allowed women into the club but only as guests (usually as the wife of a member). As my mother was divorced and my father was never in the services (Irish), she tried to get full membership with all relevant privileges on her own. She had served in the ATS. One of the privileges she had trouble with was bringing a friend (a woman she'd known for many years) to events as her guest. I'm not sure if she ever managed that one.
A couple of years before she died some friends suggested she should join a social club on the Moseley Road. I think it used to be Tindal Old boys but was now under different ownership. When she found out that only men could be members, I was supposed to join so that she could use my membership to get in. I don't think the membership ever really happened.
 
When I worked in a social club,there was the Gents Only and the snooker room that women were barred entrance to, though they didn't complain at a barmaid serving the drinks to those rooms,though! Funny that!
 
In 1995 the no women in the snooker room was still in force at the Erdington Club on Sutton New Road.
 
Is this because its only men who have big sticks? Or they are all dickheads?!
In my Grandad and Dad's day, the committee might have said a woman can't go there because of listening to mens foul language - they have a right to be themselves. What is their argument today?
I'm in Australia now, isn't there an Anti-discrimination law that covers this in the UK?

The Australian Defense Forces have women working in the army etc and now can go into combat - so if a woman can be armed with a big gun, why can't she have a big stick?
 
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In a pub I used the gaffer would call out "lady in the bar",whenever a woman came in,and all bad language would cease...perhaps some of us are still gentlemen.:)
As for women as combat troops (thought up by feminists,who never do it themselves) it's a big mistake,the Israeli army (probably the most expierienced in the world) stopped it a long time ago,it put everyone else in danger.And there has only ever been one woman who passed the Royal Marines physical,so the feminists wanted to lower the standards...:rolleyes:
 
Some discrimination still seemed to be in force at the 'Caledonian Corks' in Kings Heath when I once visited in the early 1990's. Like passing through a time warp.
 
Its not so long ago that women couldnt buy anything on HP without a man guarantor, and again only in the last few years women can wear trousers in a work place, - I know slightly off topic, sorry.
 
There are artifacts showing women wearing trousers in 400 B.C. certaintly women pit workers from the mid.1800s.wore trousers. There is a school of thought that believe it is healthier for women to wear skirts,rather than trousers,especially when pregnant.

My mom wore trousers in c1940, no man could have stopped her doing what she wanted.:)And as for snooker clubs my granny was the Saltley Billiard Hall manageress in c1910.:)
 
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