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Women in 1912 |
| History Might Have Been Different. |
| Other than Jean Harris, the
earliest known instance of women participating in Rotary activities
occurred in 1911, with the founding of the Rotary Club of Belfast. the
Belfast club's existence, it was customary for members to bring their
wives to a monthly meeting. The same Stuart Morrow who was a member of the San Francisco club, started the Belfast club. Born in Dublin in 1855, Stuart was a law graduate and a gold medalist from Trinity College, Dublin. Towards the end of 1885, Stuart Morrow emigrated to California, making his home and becoming involved in a business in San Francisco. In 1909, a few months after the formation of the Rotary Club of San Francisco, Stuart joined that Club under the classification "Collecting Agency". Morrow returned to Ireland in 1911. After establishing a Rotary club in Dublin, he arrived in Belfast on July 13, 1911, and rapidly made contact with possible candidates for membership in his proposed Rotary club for Belfast. "Self-appointed" as the organizer, he convened a meeting of interested men in the Royal Avenue Hotel, Belfast, on Monday, July 24, at 1.15pm. Subsequently, they met on Monday, August 14, 1911, With 16 men attending, Will Wallace was elected the first president. In its first roster of members, the club stated that it was to be "a business organization conducted on business lines for business purposes". At that time, Belfast was a thriving industrial city of 400,000 inhabitants. It was the principal port, serving the predominantly agricultural community, and was intensely proud of its world renowned linen industry, the world's largest rope works, together with the largest tobacco factory. Understandably, Belfast was also proud of its granite build City Hall, its excellent hospitals and its famous Queen's University. Here was the fertile soil for the seeds of Rotary to grow, and Stuart Morrow quickly secured 132 members to join the new Club. In the year 1911, in which Belfast and Dublin were formed, so too were the London and Manchester Clubs and together the four Clubs collectively maintain an informal association of 1911 Clubs. In the first year of 1912, the club's Board of directors discussed the advisability of electing women to membership or allowing them to attend weekly luncheons. The club records of that period indicate the board considered it undesirable to elect women to membership or have them at the weekly luncheons. What is not known is whether that decision was impacted by the possible admission into the National Association of Rotary Clubs. Neither Dublin nor Belfast was known to Paul Harris or to the National Association of Rotary Clubs, and as a result neither club received an official charter at the time of their foundation. When Harris and Ches Perry finally heard about these clubs, they contacted Morrow and authorized him to continue his work. In his fast-paced movement around the British Isles, his next two clubs, in 1912, were Glasgow and Edinburgh, and the following year, Liverpool and Birmingham, making two in Ireland, two in Scotland and finally two in England. It was not for another 80 years after the founding of Belfast, in 1992, five years after the U.S. Supreme Court decision and three years after Rotary changed its Constitution at the 1989 Council on Legislation, that the first ladies were finally elected to membership in the Club. Had the Belfast Club admitted women in the summer of 1912, Rotary might have changed its policy when Dublin and Belfast were admitted, and the U.S. Supreme Court would never have had to render a decision. Sources include the Club History of the Rotary Club of Belfast, research by Calum Thomson, Basil Lewis and Doug Rudman, 'Towards by Neighbour' written by C.R. Hewitt, and 'Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland' by Roger Levy. |
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