In with the New as club appoints woman for first time in 231 years
FROM the oak-panelled dining room to its comfortable leather armchairs, the exclusive New Club was long regarded as a gentleman’s home from home.
But this historic private members’ club on Edinburgh’s Princes Street – once an allmale bastion favoured by eminent judges, financiers and academics – has faced pressure to adapt to changing social attitudes.
Now, this hallowed hub of the Establishment is to make the final break with centuries of tradition as it prepares to welcome the installation of its first female chairman later this month.
Vicky Peterkin will become the first female member to oversee the club’s management and finance committees as well as acting as a figurehead for the club when she takes up her two-year post.
Mrs Peterkin, from Angus, who worked in social housing, is the former Scottish trustee and vice-chairman of the British Red Cross and is vice-chairman of the Scottish board of Home Group.
She told Scotland on Sunday: ‘I love being a member of the New Club. I am very honoured to be asked to take over the chairmanship. I know it is a big responsibility and I intend to do my very best.’
Mrs Peterkin becomes chairman after spending two years as one of the New Club’s 16 managers who are elected by members. Every two years they select a chairman.
Founded in 1787, the New Club was an allmale institution. But this has changed over the years and women now make up a quarter of the 2,100 membership.
New Club secretary Andrew Campbell said: ‘It wasn’t the fact that Vicky Peterkin happens to be a female that caused her to be elected, it was simply because she was the best person for the job. But the fact that she is a female is, from our point of view, excellent.’
Women were first admitted in 1969, when members’ wives were able to become associate members, but gentlemen and ladies ate in separate dining rooms. When the club was rebuilt in the 1960s, the building introduced a ladies’ ‘side’, incorporating a bar, drawing room and dining room.
The first female full members were not admitted until 2000, and it wasn’t until 2010 that men and women were allowed access to all areas of the club.
The last vestige of masculinity was the dining room, which until 2010 was an allmale preserve at lunchtime.
The decision to put women and men on an equal footing coincided with the Equality Act. But Mr Campbell said the club had been moving in that direction for several years.