In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Q: Story highlights Martha Burk: Augusta National Golf Club, site of the Masters, doesn't admit women 
  
 But this year the CEO of IBM, a major sponsor whose CEOs are given membership, is a woman 
  
 She says this puts IBM in a bind: Should it ditch sponsorship if CEO not admitted? She says yes 
  
 Burk: It's IBM's directors' responsibility to insist their CEO be treated like "one of the boys" 
  
 Well, well. The boys at Augusta National Golf Club -- members and sponsors alike -- are in a big bind. Nine years after I led an unsuccessful effort by the National Council of Women's Organizations to open membership in the club to women, the "woman problem" is back. 
  
 This time it involves Virginia Rometty, the first female chief executive of IBM. IBM is a major sponsor of Augusta National's Masters Golf Tournament, and up to now its CEOs have always been given membership in the club. But none has ever been a woman. So what happens now -- will Augusta National open its doors to women? Or will IBM pull its sponsorship and force its other executives to resign their club memberships? 
  
 These are the only two real choices. 
  
 Martha Burk 
  
 We've said all along that this is not about golf. It is about access to the places where big business is done, deals are made and careers are boosted or broken. Half of Augusta's membership (which reads like a roster of Fortune 500 CEOs) probably doesn't even care about golf, but the members do care about power relationships. According to Fortune magazine , "golf remains the true communications hub of America's business elite." 
  
 Back in 2003 when opposition to the all-male policy was making headlines, I got two calls from sponsors who said they were "in dialogue" with the club. The first was from Coca-Cola, saying its board was going to make a decision after talking to "Warren (Buffett) and Sam (Nunn)," board members who were also Augusta members. I was promised a call in the next two or three days. I'm still waiting. 
  
 My second call was much more hostile. It was from IBM, telling me my organization was "forcing" them to do something they didn't want to do, and generally dressing me down for making an issue of the bald-faced sexism that their sponsorship supported. 
  
 JUST WATCHED Erin Burnett's essay on Ginnie Rometty Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Erin Burnett's essay on Ginnie Rometty 01:54 
  
 A few days later Hootie Johnson, then chairman of Augusta National, stepped to a microphone and announced the club was releasing its sponsors, broadcasting the tournament without commercials. The boys had clearly made a deal that went like this: We'll "release" you as sponsors, you'll keep your mouths shut, and when all this woman stuff blows over you can quietly come back. Two of the three did not return (IBM was the exception), but none of the sponsors ever condemned the male-only policy at Augusta National. 
  
 IBM is surely scrambling for what it hopes will be another face-saving deal. The CBSSports.com senior golf columnist Steve Elling predicts that club Chairman Billy Payne will offer Rometty a membership a few days after the Masters ends next week: "She shows up at the tournament in 2013 in green, after the gender issue has died down. That way, the club avoids the appearance that Payne has been backed into a corner or forced into making an accommodation." 
  
 Sorry, but that dog won't hunt. Telling Rometty to be a good girl and wait a little longer with IBM's collusion would be a disaster -- not only for the company's image, but for Rometty's credibility as its leader. Elling's scenario would scream that IBM values the relationship with a club that proudly discriminates more than it values its own integrity -- or its first female CEO. 
  
 What if, on the other hand, Rometty makes an announcement that she's not interested in membership? That won't work either. It would be widely assumed that she was under pressure from the company to make such a statement, and in the bargain accept her second-class status. After all, CEOs (male and female) don't get where they are by making waves. But fixing this shouldn't be put on her. It's the responsibility of the board of directors to insist that their CEO be treated exactly like -- well -- one of the boys. 
  
 Besides, whether she would accept a membership is completely irrelevant to the question of the appropriateness of the club's all-male policy and IBM's tacit support of it, and it doesn't get the club out of its bind anyway. Before she can reject a membership, she has to be offered one. If Augusta National admits it was prepared to make an offer but she wouldn't accept, it has admitted that membership is open to women, and it will immediately be asked who the next candidate will be and when. If the club remains silent, IBM's problem reverberates louder. 
  
 And saying the gender issue will die down is wishful thinking. The women's movement opened the doors to the executive suites for women like Rometty with 30 years of hard work that made sex discrimination in hiring and promotion in corporate America illegal. If we hadn't raised the ruckus in 2003, you can bet it wouldn't be front and center now. And though we haven't succeeded yet, we won't stop until females are treated equally in corporate-supported venues like Augusta National Golf Club, or until those companies are shamed into pulling support. 
  
 If this were about race discrimination and a black (male) CEO, IBM surely wouldn't be in the mix, and no other national sponsor would go near this club. But it's only the girls -- and sex discrimination is just not as serious. Or is it? 
  
 We're listening for IBM's answer. ||||| (CNN) -- President Obama on Thursday made clear his view on the membership of women at the Augusta National Golf Club: They should be admitted. 
  
 The issue of the membership of the club that hosts most prestigious golf tournament is being scrutinized because the top executive at IBM, Ginni Rometty, is a woman. 
  
 IBM's sponsorship of the Masters tournament guarantees club membership for its officers, but the club does not allow women to join. 
  
 The White House weighed in Thursday. 
  
 "The president's answer is yes, he believes women should be admitted," White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters at a briefing. 
  
 Specifically, Obama believes it is "up to the club to decide, (but) his personal opinion is that women should be admitted to the club." 
  
 The Republican presidential candidates also weighed in. Mitt Romney agreed that it is up to the club to decide on female members when asked about the issue at a campaign event Thursday. 
  
 "Of course," he said. "I am not a member of Augusta. I don't know if I would qualify. My golf game is not that good. Certainly if I were a member, if I could run Augusta, which isn't likely to happen, of course I'd have women into Augusta." 
  
 Rick Santorum, in a statement e-mailed to reporters, said, "I encourage Augusta to accept women members, but I recognize their right as a private organization to decide for themselves." 
  
 Newt Gingrich said his wife, Callista, a golfer herself, would be a "great member." 
  
 During his annual media session Wednesday, Billy Payne, chairman of the Augusta National Golf Club, did not comment specifically on Rometty. 
  
 "Well, as has been the case, whenever that question is asked, all issues of membership are now and have historically been subject to the private deliberation of members," he said. "That statement remains accurate; it remains my statement." 
  
 IBM spokesman Ed Barbini told CNN on Wednesday that the company would not comment on the controversy. 
  
 Most Augusta patrons seem untroubled by the policy 
  
 The question of Rometty's membership has again brought the gender controversy to the forefront. 
  
 Women's rights activist Martha Burk tried to change the exclusionary policy nine years ago when she showed up at the Augusta entrance to lead a series of protests against men-only membership. 
  
 Her efforts were in vain. 
  
 Now, she says, "the boys" at Augusta, members and sponsors alike, find themselves in a big bind. 
  
 "The 'woman problem' is back," she wrote in a column for CNN on Tuesday. 
  
 Burk says there are only two choices at hand: Augusta can open its doors to women, or IBM can yank its money and force its male executives to resign from the club. 
  
 "Those are the only two options that are viable that are going to wash with the public," Burk told CNN last week. 
  
 Augusta's membership -- which includes titans of industry and finance -- has been male-only since the club's opening in 1932. 
  
 When Burk tried to change things in 2002, Augusta's then-chairman, Hootie Johnson, resisted, saying that gender integration would not come "at the point of a bayonet." 
  
 In 2006, Burk was among a group of Exxon shareholders who accused the company of violating its discrimination policies by supporting the tournament. 
  
 Nonmembers can play on the course only when hosted by members. 
  
 Augusta is famously secretive about its membership, and the club declined to comment on the issue, as did IBM spokesman Chris Andrews. 
  
 "Augusta is a private club, and their personal membership is an internal matter," he said. 
  
 IBM, however, has played a role in changing policy before. The company pulled television ads from the PGA Championship when it was played at the whites-only Shoal Creek golf club in Alabama. The club admitted its first African-American in 1990 and now claims former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as a member. 
  
 Augusta also did not welcome its first black member until 1990, when Gannett television division president Ron Townsend joined the club. 
  
 On the eve of the 2012 Masters opening Thursday, speculation surfaced that Payne, known to be more progressive than his predecessor, would offer Rometty a membership, but only after the tournament ends and the gender debate dies down. 
  
 "Sorry, but that dog won't hunt," Burk wrote. "Telling Rometty to be a good girl and wait a little longer with IBM's collusion would be a disaster -- not only for the company's image, but for Rometty's credibility as its leader." 
  
 More and more people are asking Augusta to man up and get rid of what they say is a discriminatory policy from the past. 
  
 Payne did not announce any sweeping changes from the hot seat Wednesday. That means that Rometty will probably not show up this year in a green jacket. 
  
 The question is: Will she ever? |||||
A: 
As controversy over the Augusta National Golf Club's men-only policy resurfaces, the White House is taking sides. President Obama "believes women should be admitted," says press secretary Jay Carney. It's "up to the club to decide," but Obama's "personal opinion is that women should be admitted to the club." Meanwhile, a women's rights campaigner who led protests against the club in 2002 is gearing up for a new fight, CNN reports. This time, the debate centers on the exclusion of Virginia Rometty, CEO of Masters sponsor IBM. The activist, Martha Burk, says there are only two ways out: Either Augusta must admit women, or IBM should stop funding the tournament. Some have suggested Rometty might gain membership after the tournament, but that's no good, Burk writes in a CNN column. "Telling Rometty to be a good girl and wait a little longer with IBM's collusion would be a disaster—not only for the company's image, but for Rometty's credibility as its leader."