Teeing up women's rights, or men's rights?

Why is it a woman can run for president and fly space shuttle missions, but she can’t play golf on publicly financed courses when and where she wants to?  Somebody’s got some ‘splainin to do.

A case out of Massachusetts caught my eye. Elaine Joyce has filed a federal lawsuit in Boston after she was denied entry into a tournament at a public golf course she belongs to on Cape Cod.  The club called her father, not her, even though they are both members, to let him know she couldn’t participate since it was a “men’s only” tournament. 

It doesn’t seem to matter that she had won more than 20 club championships over the years or that she had captured the title in 2001 at an event for the state’s top female club champions.  The Dennis Pines Golf Course has said its actions are not discriminatory.

Joyce’s complaint alleges that denying her the same “full citizenship status” as men at a public golf course is as unlawful as operating a men-only bar or a whites-only drinking fountain and that Joyce is “entitled to the equal opportunity to aspire, to achieve and to participate based upon her individual talents and capacities regardless of her gender.”

Joyce says this isn’t the first time this has happened:  when she tried to take part in another tournament one guy told her she could join if she played “naked!”  Hello.   

Maybe it’s just me… I can remember wanting to play golf with my dad on weekends years ago and him telling me I would have to wait until after 11am when the ladies could play on the course. Who came up with these rules?  A guy, no doubt.

What do you think? At a time when a woman has a real shot at the White House, do you think women should have the right to tee up when and where they want to, and compete with the boys? 

Please send me your thoughts………

-Randi Kaye, 360° Correspondent