by The all-male Garrick Club is close to admitting female members, after an emergency committee meeting admitted there was nothing in the club’s rules to prevent them from joining.
The vote late on Thursday night means women could finally become members of the club within a month, 193 years after the Garrick was founded and after years of controversy over its discriminatory rules, sources said.
The club’s committee passed a motion to accept new legal advice clarifying that the pronoun “he” should be seen as interchangeable with “she” in law, so the club’s rules already allow women to join.
The committee indicated that an extraordinary general meeting would now be called, requiring the club’s 1,500 members to vote to approve the decision.
The emergency meeting was called two weeks after the Guardian published a list of more than 60 Garrick members with powerful positions in the British establishment, giving an insight into the club’s closely guarded membership list.
The club’s 1,500 members include King Charles; Oliver Dowden, the deputy prime minister; Michael Gove, community secretary; and leading figures in the arts, including the head of the Royal Opera House and leading actors such as Brian Cox and his Succession co-star Matthew Macfadyen, Hugh Bonneville, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry and Benedict Cumberbatch.
The head of the civil service, Simon Case, the head of MI6, Richard Moore, and at least four senior judges resigned from the club following the Guardian’s reporting and widespread criticism of their decision to join an organization that blocked secrets over and over again. suggesting that women should be allowed to join.
Women are only allowed in the club if invited by a member, and accompanied by a man for the duration of their visit.
An internal argument has raged for years over whether the club’s rules prohibit women from becoming members. Two senior advocates argued that there is nothing in the rules which states that the club should be restricted to men.
David Pannick KC, who led the successful article 50 Brexit case against the government, was recently commissioned to analyze a 193-year-old rulebook by Garrick members who favor women’s membership.
A team led by Pannick concluded: “In our view, the language of the rules is clear. There is no prohibition against the admission of female members … although the language … is described by reference to the masculine (‘No candidate shall be eligible unless recommended’), the reference to the equivalent of the masculine and feminine unless the context requires otherwise.”
The club’s committee accepted this legal advice on Thursday evening, sources close to committee members said.
Seven women who hold leadership positions in the British establishment have already been named as potential members of the Garrick should the club agree to change its rules.
Classic Mary Beard, former home secretary Amber Rudd, Channel 4 News presenter Cathy Newman and Labor peer Ayesha Hazarika were among the first names put forward to the club as future members last week.
Also on the list of proposed new members are actress Juliet Stevenson, chair of trustees of Shakespeare’s Globe, Chancellor of Coventry University, Margaret Casely-Hayford, and former appeal court judge Elizabeth Gloster.
Fry, broadcaster Matt Frei and opera singer Ian Bostridge were among the signatories, it is understood that they have not received any response from the club to their letters recommending the women as members.
A change in the interpretation of the club’s rules may not make any immediate difference to the club.
One member said it took three years between suggesting his name and receiving confirmation that it had been accepted.
“I was told that was pretty quick,” he said, explaining that the nomination process requires filling out two pages of supporting signatures in a red leather-bound book, before the proposed member has to eat several dinners at the club. as a guest of the members who proposed and supported his nomination.
The number of memberships is limited. “It’s like a dead man’s shoes. You have to wait for a hard winter for some of the older members to die,” said the member, who asked not to be named because club protocol dictates that club matters should not be discussed outside the building.
Another member said he welcomed the vote, but warned there was a four-year waiting list for new members.
“It’s good that people have finally realized that the world won’t break into small pieces if women join the Rock, but we’ll have to work out how to get new members up to speed,” he said.
“It seems that the anti-women members have got away with the news. They accepted that this has to happen now.”
