Plan to ban bed-hopping blokes backfires
By Cassie White
ABC News
Posted 2 hours 40 minutes ago
Updated 2 hours 19 minutes ago
One woman's hope of starting an all-female travel company has been shattered, after it was ruled her submission pigeonholed men as only going on holiday to "bed hop and booze".
Victorian woman Erin Maitland applied to have her proposed business Travel Sisters exempted under the Equal Opportunity Act, arguing that women would feel safer and more comfortable travelling in a same-sex group.
She came up with the idea after friends complained about tour groups filled with sexual conquests and partying.
Her plan was to tailor-make holidays around women's interests such as shopping and cooking. She also argued partners would be happier sending their women off on holiday, without the threat of other men.
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal - which must make exemption rulings based on the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities (VCHRR) - denied Ms Maitland's submission.
The judge ruled there was not enough evidence to show it was necessary to limit a human right and ban men outright from travelling with her company.
VCHRR commissioner Dr Helen Szoke says the tribunal did not feel a ladies' shopping trip met the exemption criteria.
"What needs to be understood is that exceptions and exemptions under the Equal Opportunity Act exist to try to promote equality," she told ABC News Online.
"So where it's felt that groups who are disadvantaged or marginalised that need a special measure to help them achieve equality, that's when the equality should take place.
"This whole issue is not about targeting this particular application. It's really saying 'let's not misuse the exemptions just to build a business or develop a market share, or a niche market'.
"The other thing that we commented on was whether all men really only go on trips to bed hop and booze, which is the expression that is being coined. It's a little bit stereotypical and pigeonholing men, which may not be appropriate."
Safety issues
Dr Szoke says women-only gyms are a separate issue - one which primarily comes down to safety.
"If you think about women's gyms, that's about women exercising, exerting themselves, dressed in certain attire," she said.
"The argument made that they should be exempt was really based on their own sense of privacy about not wanting to be observed by men while in gym gear, where they wanted to feel safe."
The ruling comes not long after a Victorian party company, which runs dance parties for lesbians and bi-sexual women, was exempt from the Equal Opportunity Act.
But Dr Szoke says that is different.
"From the tribunal's perspective the argument was that lesbian women did not feel they could have their dance parties in an environment where they could feel safe and secure if it was open to men," she said.
"There's been a similar exemption granted to a men's only pub where they got sick of people coming in and ogling the gay men having their recreational pursuits.
"That's a whole other issue there around homosexual recreational activities because that group is so significantly stereotyped and still quite isolated in many respects."
'Empowering'
But Western Australia-based travel group Adventurous Women has been doing exactly what Victoria wouldn't let Travel Sisters do for almost two years.
Director Sue Hile says it was the lack of specialised women's holiday groups that prompted her to start her own company.
"I took a marriage mini-break. I was losing my soul being mum and wife and I didn't want to blame it on my marriage," she said.
"I was looking within myself and have always been a traveller, so I took three months long-service leave and said to my husband: 'I'm taking a backpack and I'm going. Please don't take it personally, but I need to find myself again.
"I didn't have an affair or buy myself a sports car, I just went travelling. I couldn't find a women's group ... and that's where Adventurous Women was born."
She says since starting her company it's gone from strength to strength and husbands have been really supportive.
"[Many customers are] married women who just want to have some girl time," she said.
"It's empowering to be able to go off on a holiday with a group of like-minded women and leave family behind and it's safer than travelling on your own as a woman.
"Some women don't feel comfortable travelling alone or with a whole heap of couples and that happens a lot on group travel. I've had a lot of women say to me they've been looking for something like this. They don't want to travel on the middle-aged Contikis.
"Mostly the reactions [from husbands] I've had have been very positive because the wife comes back happy and fulfilled.
"She's not running away from anything, she's simply going on a holiday and coming back to her husband."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/18/2746314.htm?section=justin
