Of course women should be allowed in the Garrick Club – but men must never be let into women-only clubs

Call it a double standard if you want, says Olivia Petter, but the whole world is already a boys’ club, and women still need a place where they can feel safe

The Garrick Club is considering whether or not to admit female members (Getty)

Where can men be men in 2024? On the side of a football pitch, chugging an ice-cold beer, perhaps? Pumping iron side by side while singing along to “The Boys of Summer”? Or how about in a changing room, trading sexist jokes while swinging themselves around? Apparently, there is nowhere left because the one remaining sacred space for men – a 193-year-old all-male members’ club – is on the verge of extinction, along with the stereotypical male.

At least, that’s the impression you get from all of the noise surrounding the Garrick Club’s deliberation over whether or not to admit female members. Currently, women are only allowed into the club if they’re invited by an existing member and remain accompanied by a man for the duration of their visit. Now, thanks to the leaking of a list of the club’s notable members – they include Matt Frei and Stephen Fry – this policy is under scrutiny, and the Garrick’s committee is holding a historic meeting to discuss whether or not it’s finally time to acquiesce and welcome women.

The meeting follows a review conducted by David Pannick KC, who spearheaded the Brexit Article 50 case against the government, to examine the Garrick’s rulebook as prompted by members who are keen to allow women. His team concluded: “In our view, the language of the rules is clear. There is no prohibition on the admission of female members.” Pannick added that while the language of the rulebook is geared towards men, using only male pronouns, this “is entirely within the ordinary use of English language that a reference to the masculine denotes the feminine unless the context otherwise requires”.

There’s already a list of proposed female members, too, like former home secretary Amber Rudd, Channel 4 News presenter Cathy Newman, and classicist Mary Beard.

All this has, understandably, prompted a major ruffling of one’s most traditional feathers. After all, what will happen to the state of masculinity if its single remaining safe space becomes obsolete? Frankly, even if they do waive the policy, I don’t understand why any woman would want to join an establishment that spent so long shutting her out. That said, I still think it’s about time the Garrick caught up with the 21st century and stopped holding on to archaic structures that have no place in the modern age and serve only to fuel unhelpful and damaging polarisation between genders.

Besides, don’t men have enough space to call their own already? Board rooms. Bedrooms. And so on. Together, women make up just 32 per cent of members of the Commons and the Lords. Meanwhile, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF), only six countries give women equal legal work rights as men. The WEF also found that women are 47 per cent more likely to suffer severe injuries in car crashes because safety features are designed for men and that 33,000 girls become child brides every day. Oh, and it’s going to take roughly 108 years to close the gender pay gap.

However much we might like to argue that things have changed, society still operates around a patriarchy and it’s something women have to rally against every day in our personal and professional lives.

It’s for this reason, though, that despite my thinking women should be allowed in the Garrick, I don’t think men should be allowed in women’s clubs like, say, the AllBright. To some, this may sound contradictory. But it really isn’t. As women, we spend our lives moving in physical and metaphorical rooms and buildings designed for men. Consequently, I’d argue it’s not only desirable to have spaces just for us but essential, to achieve some sort of societal balance.

It’s also just a safety thing – I don’t need to remind you of the statistics around the endemic violence against women and the predominantly male perpetrators who are responsible for it. This alone should be justification for female-only spaces. But I’m not sure the same liberty is necessary for men; isn’t the modern world really just one big boys’ club, anyway?