Elite Portuguese club opens door to women and other nationalities

After operating for 137 years as an exclusive preserve for Hong Kong's Portuguese community, Club Lusitano will soon allow women and non-Portuguese to join.

It is one of the last clubs to respond to the Sex Discrimination Ordinance that came into effect in 1996. The ordinance states that it is unlawful for service providers to discriminate based on gender.

The club has only ever accepted men with a Portuguese bloodline as members. Wives of these members could use the club's facilities but were not members in name and could not vote in membership meetings.

Now the club is accepting applications from women and non-Portuguese people who are interested in joining.

'This has been in the pipeline for a while,' the club's general manager, Henrique Souza, said. 'I suppose we couldn't just carry on the old way with our limited membership. All the clubs in Hong Kong are doing it. We have to go with the times.'

The club's move comes three years after the Equal Opportunities Commission, which implements the ordinance, told the club to change its membership rules. The commission was unable to exert legal pressure on the club to change its rules because no one had filed a complaint.