Let me in – Juliet Stevenson could join Garrick Club after new vote
Actress Juliet Stevenson said she would be interested in becoming a member of the Garrick Club after the organisation voted to admit women for the first time.
The central London private members’ club has been male-only since it was founded in 1831.
But a vote to allow female members passed with 59.98 percent of votes in favour at the end of a private meeting, The Guardian reported.
Actor Stephen Fry and journalist James Naughtie were among those who gave speeches arguing for the admission of women.
Ms Stevenson told the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme: “The Garrick has for hundreds of years been a club largely dedicated to the theatre community and then the arts community.
“Any club that is dedicated to that community must by definition be open to all.”
The actress, known for her theatre work and role in the 1991 film Truly, Madly, Deeply, said: “I’m not so much interested in wining and dining, but I’m really interested in exchanges of ideas and challenging each other. If it’s a place where that can take place, I would be interested in it for sure.”
According to The Guardian, Ms Stevenson is among a list of seven women that pro-women members plan to nominate for inclusion.
Other women on the list include the classicist Dame
Mary Beard, former home secretary Amber Rudd, Channel 4 News presenter Cathy Newman, new Labour peer Baroness Hazarika, Coventry University chancellor Margaret CaselyHayford and former appeal court judge Dame Elizabeth Gloster.
Former culture minister Lord Vaizey said the Garrick Club was not “a place full of men plotting to run the country”, and that he supported women being admitted as members.
Lord Vaizey, a former Garrick Club member, told the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme: “I don’t think the Garrick is a secret cabal of men that is quietly running a country that has now been broken up.”