Early Day Motion calls on Garrick Club to revoke ban on female members.

 

The exclusive gentleman's club, The Garrick Club, in Covent Garden, has not allowed women to join since it was founded in 1831. There have been repeated calls for the club to end its 'archaic' ban on female members. In 2015, members of the club voted 50.5% in favour of allowing female members, but a two-thirds majority, is required to change the rules.

In 2020, Emily Bendell, the founder of the lingerie label Bluebella, sent a legal letter to the Garrick Club to complain about its rules which she claimed amounted to sex discrimination, under section 29 of the Equality Act 2010. Now, a small group of MPs, including Stella Creasy, Daisy Cooper, Caroline Lucas, and John McDonnell, have jumped on the bandwagon and are supporting an early day motion calling on the Garrick to revoke its ban on female members.

Under the existing law, if you own a private club, such as a gentleman's club, you can limit membership to people who share a certain protected characteristics, if this is a requirement of club membership. This can include physical or mental disability, gender, sex, sexual orientation and ethnicity.

The early day motion, is not the first time there have been attempts to ban men-only drinking dens on the grounds of discrimination. Yet, what many find curious, is why arch-feminists, like Stella Creasy, and Emily Bendell, should find men-only clubs discriminatory and objectionable, but not women-only London clubs like, The AllBright, in Mayfair, The Wing, Grace, in Belgravia, Marguerite, and the University Women's Club. On this issue, Creasy and Bendell, show a certain aspect blindness and partiality.

If The Garrick Club was forced by law to admit women into membership, then you might find, women-only clubs would have to do the same. Likewise, it could also apply to Stella Creasy's campaign for a law making misogyny (prejudice and hatred of women), a criminal offence. Not only would this be difficult to enforce, it would open up a legal minefield and demands for a law against misandry (prejudice and hatred of men).