Women Freemasons

SIR – Women need no one’s permission to be Freemasons (Letters, February 10); women’s Freemasonry in this country has a long and noble tradition, having existed since 1902. Currently there are two women’s grand lodges and no fewer than three mixed orders. The grand lodges started life as mixed orders, but in the Twenties they both decided to become women-only.

To those who demand that the United Grand Lodge of England should admit women, we would point out that the membership of both the masculine and feminine grand lodges are happy with the status quo. There is plenty of respect accorded to women’s Freemasonry from the United Grand Lodge of England, and we don’t need others to feel offended on our behalf.

In this centenary year of women’s suffrage, your readers may also be interested to note that several of the suffragettes were also Freemasons: Annie Besant, Lady Lutyens, Annie Cobden-sanderson, Countess de la Warr, Charlotte Despard, Dame Florence Burleigh-leach, Evelina Haverfield and Helen Fraser, to name but a few.