American Notes ORGANIZATIONS

Most of the major international service clubs have always been of, by and for men. Even after the U.S. Supreme Court decided in 1984 that states could force the Jaycees to admit women, three of the biggest clubs -- Rotary, Lions, Kiwanis -- stuck to their bans on female membership. But since the high court ruled on May 4 that states can also compel Rotary clubs to accept women, the walls of discrimination have been crumbling.

On July 4 the 1.37 million-member Lions Clubs International agreed to admit women, and last week the Kiwanians (312,000 strong) followed suit. An estimated 90% of the 5,600 delegates to a Washington convention of Kiwanis International roared the needed two-thirds approval that abolished the traditional men-only rule. The Kiwanians, said Eleanor Smeal, president of the National Organization for Women, had sounded the "death knell for male-only economic organizations." Now, she went on, feminists can target all-male "dinosaurs such as the Cosmos Club ((in Washington)) and the Bohemian Club ((in San Francisco))."