QCs sign petition for Garrick Club to admit women
updated on 04 December 2020
More than 100 QCs have signed a petition requesting that the Garrick Club’s members, including a number of senior lawyers, vote for women to be admitted at its next general meeting on 7 December. The club is one of London’s last remaining gentleman’s clubs and has had a long association with the legal profession.
A statement from the petition reads: “It is well known that The Garrick is a forum where senior members of the legal profession socialise with each other. Men are afforded an opportunity through their membership to form connections with senior legal practitioners to support their professional aspirations.
“This is an opportunity expressly denied to women and contributes to the gross underrepresentation of women at the top of the legal profession. We urge the Garrick’s members to consider whether they would remain members of a club that excluded based on race, religion, or sexuality.”
Women remain significantly underrepresented at the Bar, making up just 16.2% of QCs, 28% of court judges and 38% of barristers.
Female QCs who signed the petition expressed their frustration at the club’s archaic traditions. According to the Guardian one female barrister said that the links between senior judges and the Garrick “have long played a part in creating a misogynistic atmosphere that makes it less likely that women will want to pursue careers to the highest level and, if they do, less likely that they will be successful. The Garrick’s insistence on all-male membership plays an important and corrosive role in confirming these gender distinctions”.
In 2011 the club’s refusal to admit women was criticised by Baroness Hale, former president of the Supreme Court. Speaking to a law diversity forum, she said: “I regard it as quite shocking that so many of my colleagues belong to the Garrick, but they don’t see what all the fuss is about”. Baroness Hale added that judges “should be committed to the principle of equality for all”.
Among the club’s members, which was founded in 1831, are cabinet ministers including Michael Gove, supreme court judges, diplomats, senior civil servants, academics, journalists, and well-known actors and writers, including Stephen Fry, as well as broadcasters Sir Trevor McDonald, Melvyn Bragg and Jeremy Paxman.
In 2015, a majority of 50.5% of women voted in favour of introducing female membership at the club but a two-third majority is required for any change to be introduced, according to club rules. Emily Bendell initiated this petition, following a discrimination claim she launched earlier in the year against the club.
