Male captain for Wirral Ladies club

Change of tradition due to Equality Act

AP's picture
Fri, 22 Feb 2013
Male captain for Wirral Ladies club

Wirral Ladies Golf Club has elected it first ever male captain to comply with the Equality Act.

Following a year of deliberations, members of the 119-year-old Merseyside club, built and funded by men for their wives to play the game, have voted for it to be jointly captained by a man and a woman after it emerged that one captain who had to be female was in breach of the 2010 legislation.

While men could play the course as associate members, no committee member could be male. But more recently men have been allowed to serve on committees and today the club has more male members than females.

“Members were consulted for more than 12 months and they expressed the opinion that joint captaincy was the best way forward,” club manager Peter Greville told Golf Club Management.

“This is a genuine mixed club. There are more men golfers than women and the men were happy to maintain club traditions, but this was forced on us to some extent to comply with the Equality Act.

“This historical change to appoint joint male and female club captains further demonstrates the club’s ability to adapt and move forward.”

He also noted that having joint captains, one of each gender, will become standard practice at the club in the future.

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