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Well, what a hubbub there has been (again) over Garrick Club membership and its steadfast refusal to allow women to join.
The head of the civil service, Simon Case, and the head of MI6, Richard Moore, resigned after being criticized for their decision to join a club which has repeatedly blocked the admission of women since its founding in 1831.
If anyone doubts the relevance of the dusty old men’s club, The Guardian earlier this week published details of its closely guarded membership list, revealing that its members include judges, dozens of senior lawyers, executives of state-funded arts institutions – and King Charles.
In other words, the country’s biggest players among men. How, then, can we deny that the ban constitutes an obstacle for women? Even Margaret Thatcher couldn’t become a member when she was Prime Minister – the highest office in the country – and the importance was not lost on her at the time.
In 1993, just a few years after she was ignominiously removed from Number 10, we had an easy chat after finishing an interview for Woman’s Hour. We discussed his early years in front of what would become his first Cabinet. She described them as “the great and the good,” but, she said, they treated her, their leader, like “the housekeeper.”
Even Margaret Thatcher couldn’t become a member when she was Prime Minister – the highest office in the country – and the importance was not lost on her at the time.
If even Thatcher is not the “right type of person” for Garrick, what they are saying by excluding her and others of her rank, surely sends the message that they have no place in the summit of power. these professions.
An all-male club of such power and influence was – and remains – a concentration of sexism at its most abhorrent. This speaks volumes about the ultimate insult to women. This means that there cannot be any of these girls smart enough or powerful enough to join and benefit from the connections and influence they could gain from our club.
In my opinion, Garrick is the foundation of professional sexism in this country.
I have, I must admit, visited the hallowed space – invited to dinner by an old friend shortly before interviewing Thatcher.
I have no desire to be allowed there again. The food was no different than what my friend confirmed to me could be expected at one of our more expensive public boys’ schools – he was clearly speaking from experience. Meat with sauce, overcooked vegetables and custard sponge pudding. A bit like my own old fashioned dinners, to be honest and not a bit fancy.
The wine was good. The club is famous for its magnificent wine cellar, but the company, which was rumored to consist of lots of aging guys slumped in comfortable leather chairs, sleepy and apparently in disrepair, did not appeal to me. I couldn’t wait to get out.
But looking back, that was me being a smart defensive pant to be honest. What I really felt was that the Garrick, with a membership roster of the great and good across the country – in law, politics, journalism, business, and even royalty for God’s sake – should welcome me and other women, and not as decorative guests. but as equal members.
Brenda Dean is another woman who came to the forefront of politics early on. She became general secretary of SOGAT (Society of Graphic and Related Trades), the printers’ union, in 1985. She was the first woman elected at the head of a large industrial union. Her exercise of power to try to end the infamous Wapping conflict, where printers faced losing their jobs due to advances in technology, led to her being denounced by some of Fleet Street’s activist groups as “nothing wrong”. ‘other than a movie star’.
She was famous for her blonde beauty which infuriated her as she worked hard to save jobs. Like Thatcher, she told me she was never clubbable. She had never heard the gossip and conspiracies since men locked themselves in the bathroom to talk behind her back.
In principle I have no objection to men and women having separate spaces reserved only for their own gender. There’s no greater pleasure than hanging out with a group of friends knowing that the conversation can safely focus on everything from the irritations of being a mother, the horrors of an unsatisfactory sexual relationship, or the pornography policy. It’s even better when you know that you can go to the toilet without being harassed or mistreated when the space is reserved only for women.
I’m sure men have topics of conversation that they prefer to share exclusively with their male friends.
But that’s not the point of the Garrick. The Garrick is a platform for the establishment. They say no deals are ever made there. I do not believe it. When the great and the good whose lives depend on making connections, on knowing who is at the top of their game, gather in one place, as members of such an exclusive club, don’t tell me that There are no endless nods and winks. “Ah, yes, you know so-and-so. I would really like to meet him. “Sure, I’ll introduce you.” I am sure it will be very useful to you.
Deals cannot be made in the hallowed halls of the club, but they must take place where they are set up.
It is this ancient game of “you scratch my back and I will scratch your back” that women are excluded from. The Garrick is way behind the times in leaving women out of his sphere of influence.
Among many others, Queen Camilla should be there because she has used her soft power to put women’s rights at the top of the agenda. Baroness Hale, the first female President of the Supreme Court, is expected to be there to remind her fellow High Court judges that their numbers should be more diverse. JK Rowling too; a leading writer and one of the most courageous commentators of our time.
As a journalist, I’ve long known how difficult it can be to persuade someone to join me in a studio and tell everything. Contacts in my business are essential and membership in a Garrick Club, where men and women can share knowledge, would be invaluable. It’s time to let us in.
Does Olivia have to be Oliver to get a raise?
Olivia Colman attends the European premiere of Wicked Little Letters at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square in London last month.
If I see an ad for a movie that says Olivia Colman is in it, I’ll probably make an effort to see it. She has never been wrong for me until now. If Tom Cruise is the star, on the other hand, I probably won’t care. I would just wonder if he misstepped and broke his ankle during one of his stunts.
One would assume that in the commercial world of Hollywood, men and women capable of attracting an audience would be paid well on an equal basis.
Olivia, however, says no: “I’m very aware that if I were Oliver Colman, I would earn a lot more than I do.”
I’d like to say I’m surprised, but I’m not. Will there come a day when women will be as valued as men?
Why WASPI should NOT receive payment
Activists outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London
What I am about to say, I say with great trepidation because I could almost have been a Wasp woman. Born in May 1950, I lost a few months of pension, but I knew the age was going to change and I was prepared for it.
How can so many women say they didn’t know that women’s retirement age was planned to be raised to 65 to match men’s? Had these women not read the newspapers or listened to the news?
As William Hague pointed out this week, this was his policy and he announced it well in advance for women to prepare. Please don’t plead ignorance or ask for compensation of several thousand euros that we simply cannot afford.
You’d be lucky to be in bed at 25, Tony!
Radio DJ Tony Blackburn in the 1960s. This week he admitted his claim in his autobiography that he slept with 250 women was “made up”.
Oh Tony, great lesson learned. If you publish an autobiography using a ghostwriter, always read it before publishing it. I suspected you hadn’t slept with 250 women when I first heard this story when the book came out in the 80s. Now you have confessed to a lie. I can’t say I’m surprised; 25 was perhaps a bit exaggerated!
- I couldn’t feel more sympathy for Caroline March. In April 2022, she fell from a horse, fractured two vertebrae and punctured a lung, leaving her paralyzed. She was so fed up with a life she couldn’t stand, where all her hopes and pleasures had been taken away from her, that she chose to take that life away this month. I know some of the pain and disability she suffered from my recent injury, but I’m 73, I’ve had my children, I stopped riding at 50, and I happy to hobble. I too might have thought that life was not worth living if I had suffered like this at his age.