A female member at a long-established Tayside bowling club is frustrated by “dinosaur” attitudes in the sport.
Kirriemuir woman Margaret Pollock is “fighting an uphill battle” to reform her local bowls club, even after recent changes to equality laws forced female members on to an equal footing with their male peers.
At 66, Mrs Pollock is one of Kirriemuir Bowling Club’s youngest members and believes she represents a generation of women who will not “make do with serving sandwiches for a half-price ticket”, or take to the greens at tightly-controlled times.
The Equality Act 2010 prohibits the segregation of memberships and fee structures along gender lines.
From March, women will be able to pay full fees, Mrs Pollock among them, but she believes she is fighting a lone struggle to pull the club “into the 21st century”.
“What I was told on joining in 2011 is that ladies had been asked if they wanted full membership, and had said no. I pointed out in a letter that the approach is unequal and that’s when the men sat up and took notice,” said the former head teacher.
“I can now become a full member but in the meantime the AGM has happened and it’s an all-male committee again. Now I have to wait for another year before I have any kind of voice.
“Every time I ask a question, I don’t get an answer or am more or less told to shut up it’s very, very frustrating.
“I’m basically fighting this battle to try and bring the club into the 21st century on my own. At the moment, it’s like living in a parallel universe.”
Established in 1870, the club’s committee has said that lady members can this year become full members, paying the same rates and bowling on the greens at the same time as their peers.
A spokesman for the bowling club said: “Unsurprisingly, the club are very disappointed that Mrs Pollock has decided to publicly characterise club members and the wider bowling community as dinosaurs.
“Mrs Pollock takes sole credit for ‘panicking’ the club into addressing the Equality Act.
“This is factually incorrect as the club formed a sub-committee to come up with a workable solution which suited both male and female members before Mrs Pollock joined the club.
“Mrs Pollock has stated in a number of letters to the club that she does not receive the respect which she feels she should receive. Unfortunately, it is not clear to us how contacting the press to air her views has demonstrated respect for her fellow members.”
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