The\nonly surprise in the news that the Garrick Club is facing legal\naction over sex discrimination is that it took so long. This year no\nold institution has been off limits to progressive calls for radical\nreform, but boys’ clubs have been acceptable targets for much longer\nand nobody can deny that a men\u2019s only members\u2019 club qualifies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The complainant is Emily Bendell, chief executive of underwear company Bluebella. The entrepreneur instructed lawyers last Tuesday to send a letter to the club, informing it that she is seeking to reverse its policy of only allowing women into the club as guests or employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Her\nlawyers’ case is that since the Garrick Club runs a restaurant and\nguest rooms, much as a business would, it cannot lawfully\ndiscriminate between the sexes. The distinction seems to be a fine\none, since the Equality Act 2010 allows single sex clubs, such as\nchoirs or sports organisations, some of which have bars or similar\nfacilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bendell told the <\/a>Guardian<\/a><\/em> that she had been seeking a members’ club to meet people after work when she\u2019d discovered the situation. Adding to her motivation is the general lack of women at business events, although having been to such events I wonder if most women simply have their priorities in better order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Garrick Club is nonetheless a juicy target, long perceived as a \u2018bastion of the establishment\u2019. Critics have highlighted that it is frequented by prominent politicians, journalists, civil servants and other undesirables, with recent members including Michael Gove, Dominic Grieve, and Ken Clarke. A similar clientele attend the Carlton Club \u2013 long associated with the Tories \u2013 as well as Pratt\u2019s and White\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\n18th century actor David Garrick inspired the eponymous club, founded\nin 1831, fifty years after his death. As the name and West End\nlocation imply, theatre and the arts have been its focus from the\nstart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According\nto the club\u2019s website, its founders wanted a place where \u201cactors\nand men of refinement and education might meet on equal terms\u201d.\nToday the club claims 1,300 members, including “many of the most\ndistinguished actors and men of letters in England”. Presumably\nScots, Irish and Welsh writers go elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bendell\u2019s claim that the Garrick Club\u2019s members \u201care people who are running the country\u201d is probably a tad overstated, unless you subscribe to Andrew Breitbart\u2019s maxim that all politics is downstream of culture. People will also note the irony in someone calling for equality while trying to access a private members\u2019 club, which is open to everyone only in the same way as the Ritz and the English justice system are, as the old gag goes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seemingly\nemphasising this last point, Bendell suggested that discrimination\nmight be tolerable \u201cif this was a tiny little club with four\nmembers in the back of beyond\u201d. One can only assume she expects\njudges or parliament to decide which clubs are unimportant enough to\nremain single sex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authorities\u2019 recent record of creating nuanced rules limiting our freedom to associate with others does not inspire much hope. Some weeks it has barely been worth describing new Covid-19 rules and their lengthy exceptions and regional variations, the likelihood being a fresh set will be issued by the weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freedom\nof association lacks the glamour of many other hard-won rights, but\nfor many lockdown will have shown how precious it is. Some have spent\nhalf a year unable to meet friends and family, and future\nrestrictions might extend this situation into next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fundamentally\nfree association is meaningless without the ability to discriminate.\nA progressive party would be ineffective if it were made up of\nconservative members. A vegetarian society full of meat eaters would\nlikewise be absurd, as would a mothers\u2019 meeting full of childless\nadults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\npopularity of girls\u2019 or boys\u2019 nights excluding either sex\nsuggests that many like to spend time with only one or the other. If\nin our permissive society we largely agree that consenting adults\nshould do what they like behind closed doors, presumably this\nincludes sitting in an all-male lounge drinking wine while flicking\nthrough the Financial Times<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Behind efforts like Bendell\u2019s is the increasingly unquestioned goal of inclusivity. Given prevalence of historic discrimination there are many contexts in which this is laudable, but London is not short of clubs, restaurants and hotels open to any man or woman with a credit card. Not being able to access a handful is a trivial impingement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\nmany feminists are seeking to protect exclusive spaces for women from\nencroachment by transgender activists suggests such arguments are not\nthe sole domain of hoary reactionaries in gentlemen\u2019s clubs.\nWhether the benefits are social, political, or whatever else, people\nshould be allowed to form clubs whose members do not include you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The only surprise in the news that the Garrick Club is facing legal action over sex discrimination is that it took so long. This year no old institution has been off limits to progressive calls for radical reform, but boys’ clubs have been acceptable targets for much longer and nobody can deny that a men\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rightdishonourable.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4651"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rightdishonourable.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rightdishonourable.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rightdishonourable.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rightdishonourable.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4651"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rightdishonourable.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4652,"href":"https:\/\/rightdishonourable.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4651\/revisions\/4652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rightdishonourable.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rightdishonourable.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rightdishonourable.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}