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The Garrick Club voted to allow women to join for the first time, reversing a policy that stood for almost 200 years before attracting increasing scrutiny from London’s exclusive private gentlemen’s club scene.
Garrick members, including actors, lawyers, politicians and senior journalists, voted 60 percent to 40 percent Tuesday in favor of admitting women, after several high-profile members said their participation would become unsustainable without a reversal.
One member said the vote would “rejuvenate the membership.”
The vote, held at the Grand Connaught Rooms in nearby Holborn rather than at the club itself, had been anticipated with great interest after The Guardian published details of the membership list earlier this year.
High-profile figures including MI6 chief Richard Moore and Civil Service chief Simon Case have resigned from the club after reports raised questions about their membership while leading organizations that have championed equality.
Other members, including BBC journalist John Simpson and musician Sting, had pushed for a vote after warning that they too would resign their membership unless the policy was revoked.
Members were warned not to speak to the press as they left the vote, but some expressed support for passing the motion as long as they were not identified. The club was contacted earlier in the day but said it would not comment on the vote.
Others were skeptical that the club had resolved an issue that had left members divided, arguing that the vote had only passed because the club had suspended its usual need for a two-thirds majority for any rule change.
“I really don’t give a damn about the outcome, but I’m concerned that those who objected are still a sizable minority and will continue to argue that the vote was flawed or a trap,” said one long-term member. he told the Financial Times.
The vote had been narrowed to focus on whether a legal opinion received by the club (that according to the letter of the law women had never been officially banned) was valid.
“My biggest concern is that there will still be division among the existing members,” the long-term member added, saying there was some animosity towards members such as actor Stephen Fry and others who had publicly warned they might have to resign if the vote did not end. . I do not pass.
Fry seemed in good spirits as he left the meeting, hugging other members who congratulated him on the “victory.” But he refused to speak to the press.
“All these people pretending they didn’t know the rules of the club when they joined, it’s ridiculous,” the long-time member added.
Others warned that, despite the outcome of the vote, it could still take several years before any women were admitted, given the lengthy nomination and approval process built into the club system.
When asked who would be the first female members, they could, half jokingly, nominate Catherine as Princess of Wales. Another, very animated, said he might nominate Stormy Daniels, the former porn actress who will testify at Donald Trump’s trial in New York on Tuesday “depending on how her testimony goes.”
The same member said that while the issue had revealed divisions in the club led by a “stalwart” who opposed women joining the meeting, the meeting had been in good character.
Another was less polite. Standing outside a pub opposite the Grand Connaught Rooms, he said the media had created the problem, calling the press “a bloody disgrace” and adding that there was no comparable focus on women-only clubs or women-only universities. .
Most of the members seemed in better spirits. “As expected, it was all quite gentlemanly,” said one member as he walked through Covent Garden towards the Garrick. “There is not too much resentment. “Now we will all go together to have a drink at the club.”