The luxurious Ladies Lounge at the Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) in Hobart had sought to highlight historic misogyny by banning male visitors from entering.

It was forced to shut in May when one affected patron sued the gallery for gender discrimination and won.

But on Friday, Tasmanian Supreme Court Justice Shane Marshall found that men could be lawfully excluded from the Ladies Lounge because it had been designed to give women a “positive advantage” in the face of the “general societal disadvantage they experience”.

The law in Tasmania allows for discrimination if it promotes “equal opportunity” for a marginalised group.

“This is a big win. It took 30 seconds for the decision to be delivered - 30 seconds to quash the patriarchy,” Kirsha Kaechele, the artist who created the work, said in a statement.

“Today’s verdict demonstrates a simple truth: women are better than men.”

Mona has long been known for its provocative art, and the exclusive opulence and pageantry of the the Ladies Lounge - which opened in 2020 and housed some of the museum’s most acclaimed works - is no different.

Ms Kaechele said that she had created the space to highlight the exclusion Australian women faced for decades, such as the decision to ban them from drinking in the main section of bars until 1965.

She described the exhibit as a “flipped universe” that provided a much needed “reset from this strange and disjointed world of male domination”.

But one man felt that the message was unlawful, and after being denied entry into the lounge last year, New South Wales native Jason Lau took his case to the Tasmania’s appeal tribunal.

Hannah Ritchie