Ladies Night. Ladies Drink Free. Ladies half price. Just one of the ways bars and clubs assure a ratio of more women to men, so the men will keep coming back and paying the cover charge.
One man—former Cravath lawyer Den Hollander–got fed up with the pricing difference, and took it to the courts. His personal reasons? He was looking to get back into the social scene, and was put off because bars were charging double for men. He felt this was unfair for men who didn’t have the cash.
Taking it to another level, Mr. Hollander argued that charging more for men was unconstitutional. Try to follow the reasoning here: While private establishments are allowed to discriminate, the state is not. The state grants bars and clubs their liquor licenses. Without liquor, the thinking goes, these establishments wouldn’t be popular, and couldn’t charge admission. Therefore, the state, via the bars, is discriminating against men.
So did the court agree with Mr. Hollander?
Last week, a panel on the Second Circuit court ruled no—that bars charging men more than women is not unconstitutional. As the Wall Street Journal Law blog explained, the court ruled that the bars were not “state actors.” The bloggers said: “We cannot agree that the state’s liquor licensing laws have caused the nightclubs to hold ‘Ladies’ Nights;’ liquor licenses are not directly related to the pricing scheme.”
(On a side note, the same man–Den Hollander—once sued Columbia University for offering women’s studies courses).
Which brings me to this question: What do “ladies” actually think of Ladies Night and half-price or no cover charges for women? It’s one of the perks of being a woman—or is it?
In my opinion, Ladies Night seems to be based on the Victorian notion that women have to be lured into shedding their angelic masks.
I don’t go to many bars these days (three children, not enough leisure time to sit in bars!), but you can be sure that if I really wanted to go somewhere, I would pay a cover charge to get in.
On the other hand, the sorts of bars I always preferred were dive bars that charged no cover.
I’m not sure why Ladies Nights persists. It sort of scares me: the notion of men, eager to pay any price to hang out with scores of tipsy women.
What do you think of Ladies Nights and women drinking for free or half price? Do you agree with Den Hollander that they’re unfair to men; or do you say, “suck it up, Den, they’re great”; or do you look at them with a wary eye?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I definitely think Den is a moron for suggesting that Ladies’ Nights are unconstitutional, not to mention the fact that he clearly has a hate-on for the female sex.
However, I don’t really like Ladies’ Nights myself, for entirely different reasons: the cheap drinks promote unsafe consumption of alcohol and binge drinking, which then leaves women much more vulnerable to randy men who show up in the hopes of scoring with some drunk chick. Now, obviously it’s the woman’s responsibility not to drink too much and/or go home with someone unseemly, but it still seems like Ladies’ Nights are all about setting up the ladies to get taken advantage of.
Ladies night is not unconstitutional, being that it deals with private business and all, but I do believe it is discriminative….. for the wrong reasons.
Like Mel said in a previous comment
“…the cheap drinks promote unsafe consumption of alcohol and binge drinking, which then leaves women much more vulnerable to randy men who show up in the hopes of scoring with some drunk chick.”
If the “Ladies night” is used responsibly, you and your girlfriends can have a great time with cheap drinks and harmless flirts. Personally I’d rather entertain/drink at home….all the fun and no worries of accidents or DUIs.
Score, one for ladies, bars nothing!