Just four members of the exclusive men-only Melbourne Savage Club say they support women being admitted as members, according to a “members’ satisfaction survey”.
But more “lady guests” could visit for “mixed dining”, breaking a 130-year tradition, if suggestions included in the survey were taken up.
“This would enliven the use of the club more often [and] encourage younger members to dine with their lady guests,” a summary of the “typical comments” favouring women as guests states.
The report outlining the results of the survey – which was conducted in December and January – was sent to members in early May by the club president, David McCubbin. The report, seen by Guardian Australia, notes 183 people responded to the survey out of the club’s 458 active members.
Women can already accompany men to the club for certain events and at certain times. While many members said they wanted the guest rules relaxed, only four who responded to the survey – just over 2% – agreed with women becoming card-carrying members.
“Almost none (4/183) in favour of women members, but a lot in favour of increased women as guests,” the report said.
In a section headed “Some issues some members seem strongly against”, the report listed: “Female members; no easing back of dress code or access for women to the Bar”.
Men-only clubs around the world have been grappling with whether they should admit women.
Earlier this month, London’s 193-year-old Garrick Club – which has a reciprocal arrangement with the Savage Club – voted to accept women members for the first time. Almost 60% of members voted in favour of the change.
Melbourne’s Athenaeum Club, which describes itself as “multi-generational, multi-cultural, multi-sector and multi-interest”, struggled with the issue in 2022 and ultimately rejected allowing women to join.
The Australian Club in Sydney – whose membership has included the likes of former prime ministers John Howard and Malcolm Turnbull – voted against allowing women as members in 2021.
Despite its strict jacket and tie policy, the Savage Club is not as buttoned-up as other so-called gentlemen’s clubs. The former Labor senator Doug Cameron once referred to it as a club based on “bohemianism, free love, frugality and voluntary poverty” and “the more sozzled alternative to the genteel Melbourne Club”.
The club’s website says its “bohemian spirit lives on in the … active calendar of artistic events, such as concerts, art prizes, and poetry and literature special interest groups”.
Special interest groups include the “Ancient Savage Hepcats”, “totally zany” kipper breakfasts and the Savage Sloths and Poets’ Table.
In 2014, Labor senators poked fun at the then attorney general and Liberal senator George Brandis for his membership. In parliament, the former senator Stephen Conroy asked Brandis to “sing the club song” and demonstrate the club initiation ceremony.
“Which institution is harder for a woman to get into in 2014: the Savage Club or the Abbott cabinet?” he asked.
Brandis responded: “Senator Conroy, I think it is about time you grew up.”
Robert Menzies and Barry Humphries have also been members.
McCubbin, an artist, was installed as president last year, a move seen as a harbinger of change.
In a cover letter to the report, McCubbin wrote he was “determined to ask members their satisfaction with the club and what changes, if any, they would wish to see”.
The survey offers a rare insight into the workings of the club and what its members like and dislike. Two-thirds of the members are aged between 61 and 90.
One member pointed to the Australian Club’s “cosy and small room” with “mixed dining”.
“We should consider setting aside the room next to the [Third World Bar] for mixed dining when not in use for private functions. This would enliven the use of the club more often,” he said.
“Encourage younger members to dine with their lady guests.”
A “relatively little used basement known to all as the Yorick Tavern” could be open to women, the report suggested.
Women speaking at events or going to lunches could be allowed into the bar for a drink beforehand, under another member’s proposal.
A section headed “What many members regularly seem to be in favour of” listed:
“[Making] the club more female friendly, letting women into more events.
“An easing of female attendance.
“A more balanced approach to gender is the most obvious issue for club growth. We are out of step with society not to investigate how to be gender inclusive.”
Members also called for a push for younger members to be recruited, and for the club to evolve to be “the happening, bohemian, hot spot of the Melbourne arts/intellectual scene with a thriving, more youthful broad-based membership”.
But “almost none” were in favour of women as members.
According to the survey, more than half want to keep the status quo when it comes to the dress code, with one saying “the dress standards of every club that I have ever been associated with have quickly fallen as soon as tie and coat restrictions are lifted”.
Many members were happy with the club food, but suggested changes including bringing back the Wednesday roast chicken, including an omelette or “having an international dish available”.
“A Chinese or Indian would be popular,” one wrote.
Another criticism was that it was “boarding school” food for “old-fashioned meat eaters”.
Another suggestion for change was that the president and committee communicate regularly with members, seek their opinions and be open in decision-making “as per under David McCubbin”.
There were calls for more ergonomic chairs, an outdoor smoking deck, better disability access, a choir and a burlesque or cabaret night for fathers and sons.
“An appealingly amusing idea was to ‘reinstate the toy monkey that moved the punkah flaps’,” the report notes.
A punkah is a type of rectangular fan used in India.
The Savage Club has been contacted for comment.
