ACHIEVING GREATER VOCATIONAL SERVICE
Re: Women in Rotary
By Frank Deaver
Rotary Club of Tuscaloosa, Alabama USA
 

     Don’t look now, but Rotary’s Vocational Service has undergone some rather significant changes in the past two decades.  October, Vocational Service Month, is a good  time to reflect on those changes.

     When Paul Harris and friends initiated Rotary fellowship in 1905, the emphasis, even if not identified as such, was heavily on Vocational Service.  Their shared business opportunities soon embraced Community Service as a secondary purpose; then Club Service and International Service eventually rounded out the “Four Avenues of Service.”

     But Rotary remained male dominated for more than three-quarters of a century, not opening its membership to the growing numbers of women who were increasingly entering business and professional fields.  From the Rotary website, we read that Vocational Service focuses on “businesses and professions, and on ethical conduct,” and that Rotarians have expertise in “management, supervision, marketing, finance, risk management, and ethical business practices.”

     If those statements were once largely male-descriptive, they clearly are no longer so.  Consider two major professions as examples.  At the 1905 birthing of Rotary, women were scarcely to be found in law or medicine.  Now more than a quarter of all physicians are female and more than 30 percent of practicing attorneys.  Further, at least half of the students now preparing for those professions are female.  Are these and other professional women any less qualified for Rotary membership and Vocational Service than their male counterparts?

     It was not until 1989 that the RI Council on Legislation voted to eliminate the “male only” eligibility for Rotary membership.  Vocational Service now recognizes no gender difference, and women are becoming members and leaders of clubs and districts throughout the world.  Their percentage of total membership has increased steadily (but not rapidly) in recent years.  Of 1.2 million Rotarians, about 14 percent are women. (1)

         Year   Rotarians  % Women
         2001   1,170,501    8.69
         2002   1,243,431   10.20
         2003   1,218,230   10.99
         2004   1,217,457   12.07
         2005   1,205,732   12.44
         2006   1,222,788   13.75

     RI President (2005-06) Carl-Wilhelm Stenhammar told his incoming District Governors that such percentages should not be emphasized.  He said, “The proper way to talk about us is that we are composed of 1.2 million Rotarians, full stop!” (2)  After his presidential year, however, we still expect those women members to join in the Rotary motto, “HE profits most . . . .”

     Is it not time for us to become gender-neutral in that worthy statement?  Is it not time to more openly celebrate the Vocational Service of all Rotarians?

     All together now:  “THEY profit most who serve best.”

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