This is an event open only to “womyn” – or more correctly, I suppose, any who claim to be womyn. Men are not allowed in. The Festival website says no such thing. I can’t find anything that suggests men will be turned away. But so many Dopers have attended and agree that such is the case, that I believe it.
I understand that private membership organizations can restrict their membership in any fashion they please, and hold whatever kind of events they want for the exclusive benefit of their members.
But that’s not the case here. Entry to the event is not restricted to the membership. It is open to approximately HALF the general public, but not the other half, based soley on gender criteria. In truth I can’t tell from the website the nature of the organizing entity – whether it is in fact a female-only member organization is not stated. It may be my assumption.
So on what legal basis can this event, which allows any woman to attend for a fee, bar men completely?
Not my specialty, and I don’t have time right now to give this a great deal of thought, but I suspect that one reason is that no man has cared enough about attending that he’s been willing to finance or otherwise instigate a lawsuit.
(Also, the test for permissible gender discrimination is somewhat more liberal than the test for, say, racial discrimination. That’s why women-only restrooms are okay, and whites-only restrooms are not.)
Here’s an article on a related issue – women-only healtch clubs.
Two comments: (a) I have not verified the statements made in the article; and (b) a case upholding a health club policy like this would not necessarily govern in the women’s music festival situation. I think the situations are distinguishable.
Wasn’t there a case a few years ago where a woman was denied a job as a PE teacher because the school already had several female PE teachers and only one male and they needed someone able to supervise the boys in the lockerroom before/after class?
Hiring can be gender-specific if the position is related to gender. For example, when Plimoth Plantations needs a new actor for one of the roles in its community, it runs an ad that says at the bottom something like “bona fide gender qualification.”