UGLE celebrates International Women’s Day
Can a woman join Freemasonry? This is an age-old question the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) gets asked many times and the answer is a resounding yes.
To celebrate International Women’s Day, UGLE has explored the development of women's Freemasonry as well as what Freemasonry means to them as women.
International Women’s Day is a yearly global celebration focused on women’s rights, highlighting gender equality issues to help create a world free of stereotypes, and discrimination.
Honourable Fraternity of Ancient Freemasons
There are two branches of female Freemasons that are separate to UGLE and male Freemasonry. They are the Order of Women Freemasons (OWF) and the Honourable Fraternity of Ancient Freemasons (HFAF), which is now known as Freemasonry for Women.
To find out more information we spoke to Christine Chapman, Grand Master of HFAF.
Christine joined HFAF in her late twenties at the behest of her mother who was also a Freemason.
She said: ‘My father was a Freemason and so was my late husband so I was surrounded by people who were Freemasons and I decided to join.
‘I joined to please my mother, she asked me twice and I thought "oh why not". I thought if my husband enjoyed it, my father enjoyed it and my mother enjoyed it then there can't be too much wrong with it.’
Christine went on to explain how her presumptions were correct and how joining Freemasonry was even more than she expected.
She said: ‘I fell in love with it straight away, it made a lot of sense to me and I could see a pattern in it.
‘They said I was walking around during the ceremony with a big smile on my face because I was enjoying it.’
Speaking of her favourite memories of being a Freemason she described her installation in the chair.
She said: ‘The memory that gave me the most pleasure was the one when I was installed into the Chair for the first time. There is nothing to compare to that, I was walking on air for days afterwards and absolutely thrilled.’
Christine was originally from Hackney, London, before moving to South Woodford and then settled in Eastbourne on the south coast. Christine is due to retire from her position as Grand Master next year.
She added: ‘I will have some more time for reading more books about the background of Freemasonry.’
It has been a busy start to the year for Christine as she recently appeared as a guest on Craftcast, the official UGLE podcast.
Women and Freemasonry
To better understand female Freemasonry, Christine gave us a whistle-stop tour of the history of the Honourable Fraternity of Ancient Freemasons.
The origins of women's Freemasonry date back to 18th century pre-revolutionary France. Christine explained to us how there were Lodges of Adoption which were society Lodges where women were allowed to join. These special Lodges also had men in them but fell by the wayside when the revolution came along.
Later on, in 1882, a French social reformer called Maria Deraismes was invited to join a men’s Lodge. Once Maria joined, a few more women joined and a group soon broke away to form a mixed Lodge. This new formation of a mixed Lodge for men and women then came to the United Kingdom in 1902 thanks to Annie Besant, a Victorian Social reformer. In 1908, being dissatisfied with being governed by France a group of men and women wanted their own set-up to be purely governed in England, similar to UGLE, so they broke away. This developed into what is now known as the Order of Women Freemasons.
Christine went on to tell us that in 1913 a group within that group decided they wanted to practise the Royal Arch degree, so broke away and formed the HFAF. At this point in time they were still co-Masons but in the 1920s they decided to restrict it to women and by the mid-1930s they had achieved this aim.
Christine said: ‘Most of the men left because the woman outnumbered them and then a lot of them went back to UGLE.’
One of the main criticisms levelled against male Freemasons is that they exclude women, however, Christine said these criticisms weren't correct.
She explained: ‘We are actually happy doing our own thing.’
International Women’s Day
We asked Christine what International Women’s Day means to her and how its messages and aims relate to Freemasonry.
Christine said: ‘I think let's celebrate women. We are at least half the population on this planet so please celebrate us. We’ve had centuries of oppression so celebrate us by all means.’
Christine told us how some of the original women Freemasons were suffragettes and how Freemasonry appealed to them because of the idea of equality between the sexes.
She said: ‘In the early days, the co-Masonry movement that came from France was very much about equal rights and universal suffrage. That is what appealed to these suffragettes.
‘We continue to spread the message of empowerment and equal rights.’
Christine explained to us what the word empowerment meant to her.
She said: ‘To me, it is being able to feel confident in yourself as a person. Not to feel cowed or that you can't speak up. It is to feel that you can speak up and be heard and your views are just as important as anyone else's.’
The head of the HFAF went on to explain some of the challenges of a female Freemason.
She said: ‘It’s history, how can women be doing Freemasonry themselves because it is the way men have looked upon women. I think all women who have taken up roles in professions that were mainly for men or are masculine have had to fight against all these barriers of preconceived misogyny of “women can't do this job” or “women can't possibly do that” and that's what we have fought against all these years.’
Christine highlighted how things had changed over time and that she was recently invited to a special event at UGLE to celebrate the Tercentenary of the 1723 Constitutions.
She said: ‘The last thing we went to at UGLE was wonderful. We were allowed to attend and were asked to come in our Regalia which was a first and a good sign we were considered as proper Masons which we haven't always felt.’
One woman that Christine felt was particularly inspirational was former HFAF Grand Master Eileen Gray.
Christine said: ‘She inspired me because she was a great achiever and achieved an awful lot in her life and not just for women Freemasonry.
‘She broke the boundaries on international cycling to get women accepted into the sport, compete and get it recognised as an Olympic sport.
‘She was a local politician and was the Lord Mayor of Kingston for goodness knows how many times and she found all that time to do these things and Freemasonry as well. She did inspire me.’
Christine went on to tell us about her greatest achievement in her role so far was setting up an HFAF Lodge in India.
She said: ‘Everyone told me it was a big mistake and would never work, but they are now very, very big and have a lot of members. They are hoping for us to go out there again next year and consecrate another two Lodges at least.
‘It really fulfilled a need out there as a lot of them were married to Freemasons and they saw what an amazing time their husbands had and the joy their husbands had belonging to a Lodge and they wanted something similar for themselves.’
Why Join Women’s Freemasonry
Christine summed up her experience of Freemasonry in these three words: brotherhood, friendship and self-improvement. She went on to explain why women should think about joining Freemasonry.
Christine said: ‘We say if you join Women’s Freemasonry we feel that you get empowered. We believe in that as women and there are other benefits from joining.
‘People get all sorts of things out of it depending on what they are looking for. Some people join for the social side of it, other people friendship.’
Christine went on to highlight what makes HFAF such a unique and special organisation to be a part of.
She said: ‘We are not a large organisation so we tend to have a very personal relationship with a lot of our members because we know them all.
‘We are always striving and thinking about the future and what we can do in years to come and that's what makes it so special for me because we can actually change things and we can have a positive influence.’
To end our latest blog post, Christine gave us some of the most important advice she had for women.
She said: ‘Not to give up when things are difficult, keep going!’
For more information and to find out how to join you can visit the Honourable Fraternity of Ancient Freemasons website.
