).
The name Rotary came from the early practice of rotating weekly meetings among members' offices. Although the clubs were exclusively male for most of the life of the organization, Johnson (1988) notes that in the Board of Directors of Rotary International versus Rotary Club of Duarte case, the United States Supreme Court defined the contours of the right of association in a manner that required American Rotary clubs to begin to admit women.
Specifically, the Court found that California could require Rotary clubs to admit women as members because a state's compelling interest in eliminating sex discrimination may outweigh freedom of association assertions by private club members. A two-pronged test was used to determine whether associational rights of private clubs exempt them from state antidiscrimination laws: expressive association and intimate association.
The Court narrowed the intimate association category to exempt only close family-type relationships from discrimination laws. Private groups may be exempted from state discrimination laws under the expressive association framework if the group's objective or purpose is tied to traditionally protected First Amendment rights or if the purpose is significantly impaired by forcing nondiscrimination. For example, one would not have to allow Republicans to serve as officers of a Democratic social club, nor would a high school Bible club have to allow atheists as officers.
Niven (1994) states that in response to the Supreme Court decision, many Rotary Clubs in other countries have opened its doors to women. Nevertheless, each club is entitled to make its own decision on this matter. Some still retain the status quo.
Many clubs, however, have voted for change - even if the first steps toward diluting the all-male medium have been somewhat tentative. For example, The Auckland Rotary Club, one of New Zealand's largest, accepted its first woman member, Elaine Lunk...