Yet, there are students, particularly women, who say the male clubs unfairly limit their opportunities.

The Phoenix - S K Club is one of eight male final clubs at Harvard College, which traces its earliest roots to 1895.

The largely southern based and predominantly male rambling clubs were bastions of class exclusivity.

And Parliament, a largely male club, is a den of sexual intrigue and scandals that rise up to the public from time to time, like breaching whales.

Members of male clubs tend to be quietly supportive of the women's groups, if not always for altruistic reasons.

From the beginning, it was a strictly male club.

She added, "It's a sort of white-collar, male club in the same kind of way that I think of the cops and the firemen."

All of the male clubs own clubhouses that they have occupied for many decades.

"It was a male club down there."

A whole series of male clubs sprang up which emphasised the elements of male bonding.