New and events of the Philadelphia Bar Asso.
Issue link: https://thephiladelphialawyer.epubxp.com/i/434516
My good friend Pat Kendall and I were shopping in Saks Fifth Avenue on City Line Avenue that morning, and decided to have lunch at the Marriott nearby. Standing in line to get a table, we heard the maitre d' tell two men in front of us there would be a 15-minute wait for a table, but they could sit at the bar while waiting. We stepped up, gave our names and said we wanted a table for two and would wait at the bar. "I am sorry," said the maitre d', "unescorted women cannot be served at the bar." We demanded to know why and were simply told it was Marriott's policy. Needless to say, we left without waiting for a table. When I informed my husband of what happened, he said he understood why Marriott had such a policy. It was most likely to keep the bar from becoming a place to pick up a prostitute. I decided my husband was not sufficiently enlightened, so I called Pat's husband, Bob, who helped me draft a letter to the Marriott. He suggested we have another attorney sign the letter, saying that in our opinion Marriott's policy was a violation of the Pennsylvania Human Rights Act. The Marriott promptly responded, explaining the reasons for its policy, the principal one being to protect unescorted women from the "unwelcome advances of well-intentioned businessmen and conventioneers" and to preserve the "family atmosphere" of 40 the philadelphia lawyer Winter 2015 R ecently, at the memorial service for Robert Kendall, a longtime Philadelphia lawyer, I recalled an act of discrimination against women on the part of the Marriott Hotel in the summer of 1970, which was resolved with Bob's help. It's diffcult to believe that it was not so long ago in the scheme of things, and that even today women suffer such affronts on a daily basis. nothing Like A DAme B y D o n a K a h n