Cherie Blair has joined a campaign to force the men-only Garrick club to admit women, as a growing number of female lawyers protest against the unfairness of rules that exclude them from a networking institution used by senior judges and politicians. Signing a petition calling on the club to change its membership rules, Blair recalled watching her fellow trainee barrister and future husband Tony Blair being admitted into the club in 1976, while she was shut outside. She described the lack of progress as “outrageous”. “Forty-five years ago, I was left standing outside the Garrick while my supervisor took my fellow pupil Tony Blair inside. It’s outrageous that so little progress has been made since then,” she wrote on the petition.
One of London’s last remaining gentlemen’s clubs, the Garrick, which celebrates its 190th anniversary this week, remains at the centre of the British establishment, with cabinet ministers, supreme court judges, academics, diplomats, senior civil servants, journalists and well-known actors and writers among its members. Numerous attempts to have the membership rules changed to allow women to join have failed, but over the past year there has been growing discontent among women working in the legal profession at the club’s continued refusal to reform. Historically, the club has been particularly popular with the legal profession. More than 300 lawyers have signed the petition calling for an end to the Garrick’s ban on female members, with 115 QCs, 77 barristers, 65 solicitors and 37 partners and directors of law firms among the signatories. The petition states: “We believe that membership of the Garrick cannot be consistent with a commitment to equality and diversity. We urge the Garrick’s members to consider whether they would remain members of a club that excluded based on race, religion, or sexuality. We invite the members of the Garrick to behave ethically, to call a vote and to vote in favour of admitting women.” Notionally, club rules ban people from talking about work on the premises, but most members recognise that this rule does not preclude more subtle forms of networking. Rachel Crasnow QC, a senior equality lawyer, also signed the petition, and said: “How can barristers or judges justify continuing as members of the Garrick? The bar has an ongoing problem with inclusion, diversity and equal pay to say nothing of retention. I’m concerned about what message young women entering the profession are given if the judge before whom they appear or even their pupil supervisor has chosen to join a club which has no regard for gender equality.”  Similar sentiments were expressed a decade ago by Lady Hale, who was the first woman among 12 supreme court judges (several of whom were then Garrick members) and later became the only female president of the court so far. “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,” she told a law diversity forum in 2011. She said judges “should be committed to the principle of equality for all”. The petition was launched by Emily Bendell, the chief executive and founder of a successful underwear brand, who started legal action against the club last year, arguing that its men-only membership rules were a breach of equality legislation. The legal action has stalled, but she is continuing to campaign for change. “The issue is most apparent in the legal community. With so many senior members of the judiciary members, it is a concern that women can’t access the club,” she said. “Cherie Blair is an incredibly successful women, but she faced this subtle discrimination, and these subtle discriminations continue to impair our progression.” In 2015, 50.5% of Garrick members voted in favour of admitting women, but this fell short of the two-thirds majority required. Three former Conservative MPs and 11 QCs were among those who said they would vote to continue to exclude female members. Other members such as the Tory minister Michael Gove and the actors Stephen Fry, Damian Lewis and Hugh Bonneville indicated before the poll that they were in favour of extending membership to women. The actor Nigel Havers, who is also a Garrick member, signed the online petition, commenting: “Surely it is time for the Garrick to haul itself into the 21st century.” The Garrick has been contacted for comment.