Members of the Garrick, London's club for lawyers and actors, voted this week to continue to exclude women.
Although 50.5% of members voted to allow women to join, this was well short of the required 66% to force the change. The Guardian says that 11 QCs said they would vote to keep the club entirely male.
I've been to the Garrick several times. My father is a member, he takes me there to lunch a couple of times a year. I don't know how he voted, although in the past he's always said that he'd be happy for women to join. After a drink in the morning room he insists we lunch on what is depressingly known as "the bad boys table", a long table in the centre of the dining room where you must sit next to whoever is already there. Half the members you meet are interesting, accomplished people. Half are sad old bores with soup stains on their pink and green ties and wandering hands for any guest who might be younger than the average club age of 116.
At some stage over lunch the conversation always goes thus:
"Matthew, you seem like a nice young chap, I'd be delighted to sign your form".
"Thank you, but I'm not on the list to join."
"Why ever not?"
"I won't join a club that doesn't have women members. I see no difference in refusing to have black or gay members."
The reaction is generally as if I had jumped on the table and defecated on their roast beef. Women are welcome to attend as guests. As long as they confine themselves to certain rooms, A-line skirts and use of the main staircase when there's an R in the month. It would change the whole nature of the club. Men can't behave themselves when women are around. A chap needs a sanctuary of other chaps. All the members' wives would join and they are just ghastly.
A couple of members have sighed in agreement with me and urged me to join and try and change things from within. At over £1,000 a year I have better things to do with my time and money.
It will happen eventually. The old tedes will die off, younger members will replace them, for the first time over half the club voted in favour of women and this will surely rise. Nor can the members enjoy the opprobrium heaped upon them for being sad misgynists. The Knickerbocker Club in New York has already terminated its reciprocal relationship with the Garrick for this reason. Others will surely follow.
In the meantime the surprise is not how many senior, male lawyers want to keep the club as it is, but that any successful female lawyer would ever want to join.
Although 50.5% of members voted to allow women to join, this was well short of the required 66% to force the change. The Guardian says that 11 QCs said they would vote to keep the club entirely male.
I've been to the Garrick several times. My father is a member, he takes me there to lunch a couple of times a year. I don't know how he voted, although in the past he's always said that he'd be happy for women to join. After a drink in the morning room he insists we lunch on what is depressingly known as "the bad boys table", a long table in the centre of the dining room where you must sit next to whoever is already there. Half the members you meet are interesting, accomplished people. Half are sad old bores with soup stains on their pink and green ties and wandering hands for any guest who might be younger than the average club age of 116.
At some stage over lunch the conversation always goes thus:
"Matthew, you seem like a nice young chap, I'd be delighted to sign your form".
"Thank you, but I'm not on the list to join."
"Why ever not?"
"I won't join a club that doesn't have women members. I see no difference in refusing to have black or gay members."
The reaction is generally as if I had jumped on the table and defecated on their roast beef. Women are welcome to attend as guests. As long as they confine themselves to certain rooms, A-line skirts and use of the main staircase when there's an R in the month. It would change the whole nature of the club. Men can't behave themselves when women are around. A chap needs a sanctuary of other chaps. All the members' wives would join and they are just ghastly.
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A couple of members have sighed in agreement with me and urged me to join and try and change things from within. At over £1,000 a year I have better things to do with my time and money.
It will happen eventually. The old tedes will die off, younger members will replace them, for the first time over half the club voted in favour of women and this will surely rise. Nor can the members enjoy the opprobrium heaped upon them for being sad misgynists. The Knickerbocker Club in New York has already terminated its reciprocal relationship with the Garrick for this reason. Others will surely follow.
In the meantime the surprise is not how many senior, male lawyers want to keep the club as it is, but that any successful female lawyer would ever want to join.
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