by Chris Black
Any single place where women are banned is a threat to all women, everywhere.
They actually expect you to believe that the only reason male-only spaces ever existed was because men held an irrational hatred of women, for no reason.
Has that been your experience?
Mild signs of a potential willingness to modernise have been observed in some of central London’s establishment clubs in the past few weeks, led by the announcement that, after a wait of 166 years, women will finally be allowed to become members of Pratt’s.
The decision by the owner of Pratt’s has been met mostly with resigned acceptance by the club’s membership, which includes at least a dozen MPs, and has triggered renewed discussion of possible reform at the remaining hardcore handful of gentlemen’s clubs that refuse to admit women.
Members of the Beefsteak, another men-only dining club joined by MPs, actors and judges, believe it is now likely it will also be obliged to change its rules to admit women. A renewed drive by female campaigners was launched last week to persuade members of the Garrick, including Michael Gove and the actors Benedict Cumberbatch and Hugh Bonneville, to allow women to join.