Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

Show NLP summaries collection recirc on article pages

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Mexican taquería’s new Michelin star puts street eats on par with gourmet food

Police believe a U.S. rapist killed several women in Canada

With its energy network nearly destroyed, Ukraine already fears the winter

The world’s coolest hotels want to tell you a story

Cruise ships to return to Baltimore two months after bridge collapse 

Some cruise prices are about to get a little more clear

She finished chemo then got a medical degree: ‘The dream is real now’

Puppy abandoned with heart-rending note is adopted, named Minerva

Man, 91, shocks tiny firehouse with $500K gift: ‘Nobody knew how much I’d saved’

How Jim Jordan tried to connect the dots on Biden’s $8 million book deal

‘Never Trump?’ ‘Never Biden’ voters might loom larger.

Ukraine gamble pays off: Republicans face little backlash in primaries

Blue Origin to fly again as space tourism struggles to get off the ground

These ISIS news anchors are AI fakes. Their propaganda is real.

Boeing delays spaceflight again as it continues to struggle with leak

Russia shows resilience. There is more to do for Ukraine.

Trump promises tax cuts and fewer rules. CEOs shouldn’t fall for it.

Tariffs against China hamstring the transition to a clean energy future

Book Tour: At home with Amor Towles

In photos: The scene in Houston after severe storms killed at least 7 people

Civilians flee new Russian attacks on Ukraine border

Carolyn Hax: Is it weird to ask other people to care about you?

Ask Amy: Can’t a single woman eat alone without interruption?

Miss Manners: Miss Manners: Gag gift falls flat

At campus protests, ‘DO NOT TALK TO THE MEDIA’!

Trump’s lawyer charges Michael Cohen lied to jury

CNN gets a presidential debate — and a much-needed win

Joey Gallo returns, but Nats endure another quiet offensive night

Bryce Harper, Joey Gallo and a bond forged by baseball since they were kids

A taco will always be a taco — no matter what we call it

Biden’s false claim that inflation was 9 percent when he took office

Did Obamacare ‘massively’ increase the cost of health care?

Trump

BERLIN — When the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/075d679e-0033-11e8-9650-9c0ad2d7c5b5">Financial Times on Wednesday revealed</a> harassment at a London charity event last week, the fallout was swift. Within hours, Britain’s House of Commons opened investigations and Prime Minister Theresa May expressed her discomfort. Meanwhile, charity recipients, attendees and donors hurried to distance themselves — and late Wednesday, the trust itself shut down with immediate effect.

For 33 years, the Presidents Club Charitable Trust had organized an annual fundraising dinner — for male members only.

Even a day after the news broke, the revelations remained Britain’s lead story on Thursday, with the focus now turning toward other clubs that accept only male members, even if they may not directly or indirectly encourage the sort of sexual harassment revealed by the Financial Times at the Presidents Club.

“It is worth remembering that many senior establishment men cling firmly to their right to spend time in men-only environments outside of the world of finance,” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jan/25/men-only-clubs-and-menace-how-the-establishment-maintains-male-power">Guardian reporter Amelia Gentleman wrote on Thursday.</a> “Anyone shocked by the idea of 360 men from business, politics and finance gathering at the all-male Presidents Club annual dinner should note that men-only clubs continue to flourish throughout London.”

In fact, men-only clubs still appear to exist across much of Europe, including in France, Britain and Germany. In the British capital, a number of clubs still don’t accept female members, even though women are often allowed to join men as guests. Frequented by leading figures in business, politics, media and other professions, those clubs have withstood decades-long attempts to get women accepted. In July 2015, the men-only Garrick Club in the center of London voted to uphold its ban on female members. (A <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/06/garrick-club-votes-to-continue-with-ban-on-women-members">slim majority voted to drop the ban</a>, but any changes would have required a two-thirds majority).

The 2015 debate also made headlines in France at the time. Even though it stressed the British “origins” of such gender-separated places, <a href="http://madame.lefigaro.fr/societe/quels-sont-ces-clubs-tres-prives-reserves-aux-hommes-170715-97505">French newspaper Le Figaro found multiple clubs</a> reserved for men in the middle of the French capital.

Both in Britain and France, courts have not used gender equality laws to rule against the practices. Proponents of the men-only membership associations have referred to the existence of female-only sports clubs, saying that they could similarly be found guilty of gender discrimination if such laws were deployed.

In her 2008 book, “<a href="https://books.google.de/books?id=OQhvAAAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PA138&amp;lpg=PA138&amp;dq=britain+court+men+only+clubs&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=Oi4-09rk5r&amp;sig=LnM7gV0Z1FaZD8XbicQBy4lptLw&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwiCyOrC_vLYAhURyKQKHTjfDJEQ6AEIYTAM#v=onepage&amp;q=britain%20court%20men%20only%20clubs&amp;f=false">Members Only: Elite Clubs and The Process of Exclusion</a>,” Diana Kendall argued that flawed European Union directives — which were originally supposed to advance gender equality — did not tackle the persistence of men-only clubs, ironically because they applied only to mixed-gender clubs.

But elsewhere, men-only clubs have faced more robust legal resistance. In 1987, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously to outlaw Rotary Clubs’ reluctance to accept female members in a decision that had implications nationwide, and set a legal precedent. The landmark ruling came decades before similar trials got underway in Europe, even though men-only sports clubs are still not entirely a thing of the past in the United States, either. Some of the last U.S. holdouts — among them the Augusta National Golf Club — only recently <a href="http://www.scmp.com/sport/golf/article/2085257/once-all-male-augusta-national-home-masters-golf-major-will-accept-more">announced a change of course</a>.

Whereas the 1987 Supreme Court ruling had an immediate effect on Rotary Clubs in the United States, Rotary chapters abroad that are not bound by U.S. rules have continued to exclude women as similar legal challenges in their respective countries were lacking.

It took until last August for a German court to rule that clubs that discriminated against a gender should be banned from registering as nongovernmental organizations. Men-only clubs are less widespread in Germany’s capital, Berlin, or the banking hub Frankfurt than they are in London, and the court case mostly referred to the Freemasonry, a fraternal organization that is not unique to Germany and has historically  allowed only men to join its ranks.

Even though the court decision stopped short of constituting an outright ban, it restricted the association from benefiting from the tax perks usually granted to nonprofit organizations. As in Britain and France, critics of the ruling argued that it may also affect male or female choirs, where gender separation is not necessarily intended as discrimination. But others viewed the broad ruling as necessary to force the country’s remaining men-only bastions to open up, which included a fourth of all German Rotary clubs as of August 2017.

The ruling will “certainly lead to a lasting rethink among this minority [of Rotary clubs] — and we explicitly encourage this,” Peter Iblher, one of Rotary International’s directors, said in an interview last year, indicating that the organization, which is headquartered in the United States, has long viewed as outdated the practices still in place at some of its independent regional branches abroad.

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/01/25/america-first-is-a-hard-sell-in-davos/?utm_term=.da2b5164a840">‘America First’ is a hard sell in Davos</a>

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/01/24/the-far-right-afd-wants-to-protect-germany-from-islam-now-one-of-its-politicians-has-become-a-muslim/?utm_term=.96019585c1d7">The far-right AfD wants to ‘protect’ Germany from Islam. Now, one of its politicians has become a Muslim.</a>

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/01/24/the-canadian-fix-to-the-opioid-crisis-a-vending-machine-that-distributes-prescription-opioids-to-addicts/?utm_term=.b3e1580281e6">Canada’s fix to the opioid crisis: Vending machines that distribute prescription opioids to addicts</a>

Sciences Po Paris, BA in political science

Johns Hopkins University, Aitchison Public Service Fellowship in Government

King's College London, MA in terrorism, security and society

Rick Noack is The Washington Post's Afghanistan bureau chief. Previously at The Post, he was the Paris correspondent, covering France and Europe, and an international affairs reporter based in Berlin, London and Washington.

Rick Noack

The Washington Post

London's Presidents Club is to close. Across Europe, there are many more like it.

War In Ukraine

Africa

Americas

Asia

Europe

Middle East

World

prism://prism.query/site-articles-only,/world/&limit=20

The Washington Post World section provides information and analysis of breaking world news stories. In addition to our world news and video, Post World News offers discussions and blogs on major international news and economic issues.