Melbourne Club between a vice-regal twinset and a hard place
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Governor General Quentin Bryce has flattened many a gender barrier throughout her career –one of the first women admitted to the bar in Queensland, the second to be Governor of Queensland and clearly the first GG to a wear pink twinset and pearls — but she has yet to face the old boys club alive and well in Melbourne’s CBD. Barry Everingham, who comments on all matters royal, has confirmed to Crikey the appointment of a woman as GG would pose a problem for the exclusive men-only Melbourne Club, home of Victoria’s wealthy and powerful gents. “It is a club tradition to offer honorary membership to the Governor General”, he said. Bryce was sworn in as GG less than two weeks ago, her staff told Crikey: “The GG receives offers of a large number of memberships and invitations and she’s been too busy to consider them at this stage. We’re not aware of anything from the Melbourne Club.” Sexism in the elite gentlemen’s clubs of Melbourne has recently been brought into the spotlight with the resignation of several prominent members of the Athenaeum Club after members voted to keep women out. The Athenaeum Club describes itself as “Confident in its heritage and traditions, yet enlightened and contemporary in its outlook”, but members rejected Victorian Chief Commissioner of Police Christine Nixon on the grounds that she is a woman. Senior diplomat and former Athenaeum Club member Ian Wilcock told The Weekend Australian he had lost heart, “I find I have very limited patience for trying to coax people into the 1970s.” Gentlemen’s clubs originated in England in the 1600s, becoming popular in Britain and her colonies in the mid 19th century. Their initial purpose was networking for the elite power-brokers, intellectuals and nobility in times when women were not granted such positions in society. Many have changed with the times and women have been members of clubs in the United States and the UK since the 1980s — the original Athenaeum Club in London voted to admit women in 2002. Australia has a fair share of such clubs including the Weld Club in Perth, the Australian Club in Melbourne and Sydney, the Savage Club in Melbourne, as well as the aforementioned Melbourne Club and Athenaeum — which has an outpost in Hobart — all only accept male members. Women-only clubs and organizations, such as the Country Women’s Association, the Lyceum Club and Alexandria Club, do exist in this country but none serve the same social networking and power — brokering purpose as these elite gentlemen’s clubs. The Athenaeum’s breakaway group of members who would like to see women admitted, wrote a discussion paper for the club, stating:
The Melbourne Club, whose ranks include Archbishop Denis Hart, Andrew Peacock, Barry Jones and Kevan Gosper, is much more private than the Athenaeum, lacking even a website. Crikey was unable to find out if any debate on s-x and membership has taken place there, or if the Governor General will be extended honorary membership this time. |
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8 Comments
If Anthony Albanese can be a nitpicker … sorry Crikey but if you’re going to take a gentle swing at the GG for being “clearly the first GG to a wear pink twinset and pearls” then you need to find a pic of her actually wearing said garments. A twinset is a fine knit cardie with matching knit top underneath, not a pale pink, rather elegant, tailored jacket.
Well…the Athenaeum Club might be worth belonging to when its members grow up.
Notwithstanding the members’ inflated opinions of their position, in fact the venerable old institution is, and has been for many years, irrelevant as a place of influence.
As many important deals are cut these days in the private dining rooms of fashionable city restaurants, as at the MC.
I was reminded the other day of a letter to The Times on the London Athenaeum Club vote on admitting women. The letter said , roughly, that the decision seemed easy to make as, for many years, the Club had been admitting people who were not gentlemen.
It may be of interest that a dinner was held ath the ANU in honour of Sir Zelman Cowen, prior to his going to Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He mentioned in passing in a superb speech that, like our new Governor General, he had been invited, when appointed Governor General, to become a member of the Melbourne Club. He told his fellow Oxonians that he replied thanking the club for its kind offer but that he was content to remain, in absentia, a member of the Adelaide Club and, as I recall, the Commonwealth Club in Canberra.
Well…the Athenaeum Club might be worth belonging to when its members grow up.
The Governor-General is wearing a suit, NOT a twinset and I could find no pearls in the photo.
I used to teach a sociology course on Irish society. Some years ago I read in an Irish newspaper that women had been excluded from joining the Royal Irish Golf Club in Dublin. When asked why women were excluded, the club replied that it did not discriminate against women because it did not have any women members to discriminate against.
Speaking of sociology, The Australian revealed on 13/14 September that Monash sociology professor, Gary Bouma, is a member of the Atheneum club. The reform group has asked him to write a discussion paper about the club’s discrimination against women. Given the study of inequality is the core of the discipline of sociology it’s surprising Professor Bouma would join such a club in the first place. Professor Bouma is also an Anglican priest.