Augusta National Golf Club: Membership for Women or Staying the Course - Essay Example

The Augusta National Golf Club, with a limited membership of three hundred people, is a private club for men, the new member of which can be nominated only by the existing members and the membership fees constitute $25,000–$50,000. After the chief executive of the U.S. Olympic Committee and an African-American member of the Augusta National Golf Club Lloyd Ward made an innocuous remark about the inability of women to get a membership to the club, it created the predisposition for Chair of the National Council of Women’s Organizations, Martha Burk, to consider such statement as gender discrimination.

The actions followed the statement created mass publicity with the Chair of NCWO to start a battle for women's rights regarding the membership for women in Augusta National Golf Club. Despite many claims and letters addressed to numerous organizations and companies that had a business relationship with Augusta National Golf Club, NCWO did not get the desired answer as to the possibility of women getting membership in the Club.

Besides, the final speech of William Johnson, the chairman of the venerable Augusta National Golf Club, is salted regarding other institutions such as Smith and Wellesley Women’s colleges, Spelman college for black children, and the Girls Scouts of America, where restricted people get access. It makes sense to leave the Augusta National Golf Club membership only to men, while women can have their own communities. 

When the NCWO  addressed letters with the claims to support the organization in its strive to obtain membership in the Club to women, such organizations as Citigroup, Inc., the Coca-Cola Company, General Motors Corporation, the IBM Corporation, Professional Golfers Association, CBS Television Network, and the Columbia Broadcasting System were involved. The only company that first agreed to support the NCWO was the IBM Corporation, however, its decision to withdrew its sponsorship was dictated by the revealed discrimination against African Americans.