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The freemasons who allow women to join
Yes, women can join the freemasons - the Co-Freemasons that is. But why would anyone want to?
Nikki Roberts, 31, followed her grandfather into the Co-Freemasons.
On a leafy street in the London suburb of Surbiton, a big white sign welcomes visitors to a masonic
lodge for "men and women". The lodge is an imposing Edwardian mansion, down the stairs of which
comes a white-haired man offering his hand to shake, which is a bit hurried on a cold, wintry morning,
but not particularly funny.
Julian Rees is a member of the International Order of Co-Freemasonry and he is keen to disprove the
sense that it is a secret men-only society
. The visit to Surbiton was arranged by a press officer after I called the rules on allowing women to join
"complicated". Offering to carry my bag before he proffers a cup of tea, Rees explains that his order
has welcomed women since its formation by feminist and socialist Annie Besant in 1892. Women
now make up more than half of the Co-Freemasons estimated in the UK today.
Yet, as we climb the hexagonal staircase of the British HQ, filled with symbols and pictures of elaborately
dressed masons, the presence of women doesn't detract from some of the bigger questions about the
freemasonry, such as why a publicist is arranging meetings with a society best known for its secrecy
. The answer lies in the fact that freemasonry in this country is in something of a crisis,suffering from a declining
and ageing membership.