The men-only Melbourne Savage Club has pulled the pin on allowing women to lunch there two days a week – but has left its exclusive doors open to potential future female participation.
Under the “Female Dining Initiative”, the private club trialled mixed dining on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. “Lady guests” were allowed to have a pre-lunch tipple in the Social Room and lunch in the Dining Room.
Before that, women were only welcome as guests at certain functions and after 4.30pm on weekdays.
A survey last year found overwhelming opposition to allowing women as members. Just four men (2% of the membership) wanted to admit women.
But many were in favour of being more “female friendly”, including by breaking a 130-year tradition to allow women to dine in one of the club’s multiple rooms.
The trial allowing women guests for lunch, meant to run for six months, was announced in June and started in July.
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But this month, a rebel faction warned of uneasy wives and “Karens” – a term that has been described as racist, sexist and ageist – and called an extraordinary general meeting.
The group wrote in an email that “the loud and boisterous bohemian behaviour that the club is famous for will now have to be tempered for fear of upsetting a ‘Karen’ at the other end of the dining room”.
“Our wives no longer will have the comfort of knowing we are at a male-only venue, so long hours spent at the club will no longer be viewed as favourable on the home front,” the email says.
Members were asked to vote yes or no on three options in a non-binding plebiscite.
The first was a return to the original rules where “the club maintains its gentlemen-only dining policy in the Main Dining Room”, while female guests would still be allowed in the evenings and at specific events.
The second was to continue allowing female guests access to the Dining Room and Social Room on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
The third was reducing that access to one day a week, a “ladies day when accompanied by a member”.
On Tuesday, members were told the mixed dining trial had finished less than halfway through the planned six months, but that “future options” for mixed dining would be explored “in light of the feedback received through the recent plebiscite”.
“These will be considered carefully and shared with the membership for input at an appropriate time,” the email says.
The club, formed in 1894, describes its membership as sharing “a passion for music, art, drama, literature and science … unified by a bohemian spirit”.
Guests can enjoy open fires, leather lounges, Heidelberg school paintings and “irreplaceable Polynesian and Melanesian artefacts”, its website promises.
Mobile phones and electronic devices are not allowed and jackets and ties are required (presumably just for the male members and their male guests).
