What Was the Problem? Would My Oestrogen Set Off the Fire Alarm?

Earlier this month, it was reported that, after years of worrying about oestrogen setting off their fire alarm, the Garrick Club, that bastion of entitled male privilege, has finally voted to allow women members. It has been hailed as a victory for equal opportunities. But is it?  

Are we missing the bigger picture here? After all, the whole concept of elitist clubs per se, which I struggle with, is still at play. The only club I’m a member of is David Lloyd (yes, I know, that’s a type of elitism), where the only bar to membership is the price. Anyone can join; you don’t have to be nominated, you don’t have to be a specific gender or know someone. 

While the Garrick appears to be an anachronism, in the world of work, there are still plenty of limitations placed on many. With workplaces spending money on inclusion and diversity more than ever, can we really get away from the little cliques created behind closed doors? 

Excluded from little cliques

Let’s take a look at why The Garrick club is nothing to shout about.  Firstly, there is still the vote to get in. Almost 1000 male members of the literary and theatrical club voted 60/40 to allow women in. That’s nearly 400 supposedly enlightened men who still think that women should be excluded from their little clique. I mean, I’m all for protected, safe spaces, but what are they protecting? The prosecco? I would love it if, after all the years of scrutiny and pressure, no women applied.  Actually, nah. Not for me. 

Reading about the Garrick took me back to the nineties when I was a teenager incarcerated/living on the Isle of Man and working in a pub. The landlord was a bit of a local bigwig. He knew a lot of people. He was always getting let off for driving offences, mainly drink driving, which was one of the top national sports back then on the island, along with ferret racing and witch dunking.

I could never work out why he had attained this ‘untouchable’ status. But then, one day, he offered me a job working behind the bar in his ‘club’, and it all made sense. His club was the Freemasons, and he was quite high up in the hierarchy—Chief Reindeer or something like that. On my first shift there, I noticed several members of the local constabulary. 

For a girl to be working in the male-only environment of the secret society was quite unusual at the time, but the landlord liked me and respected my work ethic. The masonic hall was split into two floors - an informal social part downstairs, where the masons would meet and have a drink, sometimes with their wives, and the upstairs, where the weird sh!t went down. It was where the secret meetings and the ceremonies took place. Women were not allowed upstairs. 

“Why?” I asked one day. “Will my oestrogen set off the fire alarm?”

I was given a condescending pat on the ‘lower back’ and sent on my way. It was the nineties in the Isle of Man, so culturally the 1950s, and that kind of casual misogyny was commonplace.

After a year of working there I was allowed upstairs but only to set up before the men arrived. By that time, I had started to question why the Freemasons didn’t allow women members to join. But then why would they? To me, it just seemed like a boy’s club where all the members did was get drunk, sing Auld Lang Syne, pat each other the back and then drive home, safe in the knowledge that a special handshake or a rolled-up trouser leg would get them out of trouble if plod pulled them over.

Limitations are still placed on women and underrepresented individuals

In the world of work, there are still plenty of limitations placed on women and underrepresented individuals. Figures released earlier this year show that things are improving, but only to a level. Women occupy just over two in five seats on the boards of the UK’s biggest listed companies, according to the government-backed annual FTSE Women Leaders Review.

The proportion of board positions held by women in the FTSE 350 rose to a record high of 42% this year, up from 24.5% in 2017. However, according to the report, “the standout disappointing statistic among a sea of progress at every level” is the number of female chief executives in the FTSE 350. In 2011, 15 CEOs were women, and that number has risen to 21 today. And there are only 10 companies led by female chief executives in the FTSE 100. Given that over half the population are women, this figure suggests that we still have a long way to go to reach parity. 

This all matters because inclusion is not merely a social nicety but a cornerstone of psychological well-being and mental health. Exclusionary practices, like those at the Garrick Club, the Freemasons, or the male-dominated boardrooms across the country, can have profound implications on people’s sense of belonging and identity. 

When you look around the room and don’t see people who are representative of who you are, you can feel excluded, demotivated and isolated. And the organisations themselves miss the opportunity for different viewpoints, perspectives and experiences. 

Inclusive environments foster diverse ideas and innovations, enhancing community well-being and individual mental health. They break down barriers to opportunity, allowing a wider range of people to succeed and contribute to their fields. However, we have to be honest when talking about inclusion: We all have a role to play. 

Sometimes, that means giving up a belief you have or a seat at the table for someone else. And no, it’s not about positive discrimination. It’s about seeing represented groups who deserve to be there and motivating others to believe, too. 

All joking aside, at the time, I thought the masons were harmless. Just a bunch of men being eccentric. But the underlying ethos - that women are somehow not worthy of membership there and in any other male-only club - shouldn’t have a place in 2024.

If you’d like your team or workplace to feel more inclusive, why not get in touch with our Doug - he can share how we create bespoke sessions just for you! Email him - doug@laughology.co.uk. No funny handshakes, we promise.

About the author

Laughology’s CEO, Stephanie Davies, is one of the UK’s leading voices in happiness and engagement in organisations. She has an unsurpassed reputation for designing and delivering interventions for top-performing teams across a range of sectors and has developed Laughology into the nation’s most talked-about training and development provider. She also has the smallest little fingers of any human ever and is often seen walking a cat on a lead in the Surrey village where she lives.