At first only male Rotarians were admitted.
The club in Duarte, California, admitted women in 1977 with only their initials so that headquarters would not discover them, and they were eventually detected and expelled from Rotary International in 1978…
Was it legal to exclude women?
The expulsion divided Rotarians until in 1987 the US Supreme Court, at the behest of those early Rotarians, ruled that the right of women to be admitted prevailed over the right to associate with whoever they wanted admit men
Fair and necessary.
As you can see, today a woman is the president of Rotary International and we already have 250,000 Rotarians around the world.
What is Rotary: a social, business, philanthropic club?
It has been since it was founded by Paul Harris with three friends in 1905 in his office in Chicago, where he had moved for work from his native Pennsylvania.
Did he miss his friends?
And he looked for others in Chicago: pure civil society: that simple, human and universal.
Why were they “Rotarians”?
Because they rotated in everything: every week they met in one’s office and began to invite other lawyers and other professionals: doctors, journalists, entrepreneurs… Everything.
And don’t they also rotate positions and responsibilities by turns in each club?
It was part of the spirit, which in the beginning was just networking to create community and serve their own, until it gradually found philanthropic goals throughout the country, because Harris’ idea was a success and it spread throughout the United States.
And wasn’t it also a club of diplomats, cosmopolitan, transversal…?
So much so that among the diplomats of 50 allied nations who approved the United Nations Charter in San Francisco in 1945 there were… 43 Rotarians!
In contrast, Franco banned Rotary in Spain for freemasons during the dictatorship.
We are a transversal, inclusive, universal, philanthropic, free organization… And autocrats don’t like that. Today Rotary is in 166 countries: there are 46,000 clubs worldwide and 1,400,000 Rotarians. And in Spain there are already more than 4,000 Rotarians in 200 clubs.
Aren’t they elitist? Aren’t Rotary clubs by invitation only?
Anyone can start a Rotary club, and the dues are no more than those paid in any gym today. But I will also tell you that it is true: we look for excellence in our interns and in our partners.
But gather for what?
The very act of coming together beyond our political, religious ideas, national identities… already generates value for those who come together to do good and for the community. We are human, and what makes us better is coming together to help each other.
Are we worth what our relationships are worth?
But we are also proud of our universal vaccination campaigns: without Rotary, polio would not have been fought with the same success and speed…
Did you put money?
And efforts, coordination: alliances with the UN and its organizations in seven areas, such as sustainable development today. In our almost 120-year history, we have contributed more than 5.5 billion dollars to these campaigns. Everything is well documented.
All over the planet? Haven’t they been banned in some country?
I’ll just tell you that we have Rotarians right now in Kabul and WHO, Unicef, Gavi (the global vaccine alliance). the Gates Foundation… And we have collaborated, of course, against covid in 70 countries.
How did they choose you?
I was elected by the committee of 17 Rotarians representing all areas of the world, even though I was Canadian.
You were a famous TV presenter, I read in your CV.
I founded a television production company and I have a doctorate in Law. And my husband is a doctor who has abandoned his patients to follow me for two years on a club tour and is now here in Barcelona.
Do they have Rotarians in Ukraine right now and also in Russia?
Yes, we have. And may I add that they are helping each other right now…
Hopefully they will also help for peace.
I’ve been there and I can’t tell you anything else. Only in these two countries there are wonderful Rotarians doing wonderful things for others.
An example?
We managed to raise more than 15 million dollars in just a few days to help the victims of that war… Especially, the homeless children.
