To BSA I say oh no! I believe there are already jurisdictions around the world who include women. To all of this, I say OH NO. Seems like bottom line is financial. Nope. Be better if some weak lodges merged to make stronger lodges. Don't join Alpha and Beta and call it either Alpha or Beta. Form New lodges with new numbers so all members of the new lodge equally belong. Believe me when I say I love my wife and my daughter, but if they were interested they'd be involved in OES. So sorry WB Darin, my vote would be a resounding no.

Thanks Bull.

I am a MM in the DFW area of Texas. Our lodge was established in 1846 and is considered the "Mother Lodge" of north Texas. So history and ritual are very strong and strict in our lodge room.
But I also am very open minded about a lot of things but when it comes to the Boy Scouts I am NOT pleased with feminist forcing their way into the Boy Scouts. Nor would I be accepting of co-ed Masonry. The Boy Scouts are no longer "Boy Scouts" they need to change to merely "Scouts" if they are going to lower their standards and such.
Masonry would no longer be a fraternity if we allow women in. It would merely turn into a "Masonic Social Club" as the very idea of a fraternity is MALE oriented since time immemorial, hence the name. Our dwindling membership is merely a product of attrition due to members of "The Greatest Generation" passing away and the lowered number of Masons who came in during the Korean and Viet Nam conflicts. Part of the issue is that back in the day for some reason Masonry was so "hush hush" that a huge number of men had no knowledge of Masonry or how to join. My paternal ancestors were Masons but it skipped my grandfather and father. My grandfather was busy working and raising a family I suppose. My dad told me before his passing that he did not know anything about Masonry even though his paternal and maternal grandfathers were both Masons. I was born in 1960 and I knew nothing of Masons until 1998 or so, and then still did not know how to become one. I thought it had to be a legacy thing where your father had to be one before you. So secrecy is one of the main causes it is not drawing new members. And I think that in some lodges they are not near as active in things outside the lodge. Hard to draw interest from young folks in attending one meeting a month and attend to just business and then "See ya next month!". Our lodge has social events such as golf outings, bowling, shooting competitions, and of course our charity events. BBQs and suppers and such. We have a "Sweetheart Dinner" every February where we honor our spouses and or girlfriends. We are family oriented when outside the lodge. I think if more lodges were active outside the lodge, provided interests to young men, and were not so "hush hush", our numbers might grow again. I know our lodge is growing as we have had 10 new members join in the past year. Texas has a strong Grand Lodge and is focusing on education for 2018. Obviously we DO NOT solicit / recruit new members, but this does not prevent us from presenting ourselves to the public and educating our community in what we do.
Honestly had I know how easy it was to join, I would have done so back when I was 21. But again, the "Hush hush" part keeps us down. Hard "To be one – Ask one" if you never see, hear about or "Know one". But again, co-ed is not the way to go. Although, perhaps it might keep members more awake during the degrees. 😉
(just kidding)

I am an MM in the DFW areas of Texas. I am not for allowing Masonry to go co-ed. The answers for drawing members from the younger crowd is to do social events and things that interest the younger men. I believe the "Boy Scouts of America" have made a huge mistake and their numbers will end up dwindling rather than increasing. At least in Texas anyway, where father – son bonds are a bit more closer and desired. Not meaning anything against women at all but they have their sororities and women's groups. They do not need to meddle into ours.
I think the numbers have been dwindling down due to the loss of the Greatest Generation and lack of membership from the years of the Korean and Viet Nam conflicts. The young men in my family (and generation – 60's youth) were even made aware of Masonry. I never heard about it until the middle 90's and even then did not understand how to join. I was of the opinion that you had to be brought in by a father or grandfather. In researching genealogy I found where two great grandfathers were Masons but not grandfathers or my Dad. Guess lie was too busy back then with my Dad joining the Navy when he was 21 (in 1951). Lot of young men went off to serve our country and so were not home to be exposed to their home town lodges. That was my dad's answer. Hard "To be one – Ask one" when "No one – is one".
Bringing in females in my opinion is not the answer. My lodge is drawing more younger men in by doing things outside of the lodge that interest young men. Golf outings, BBQs, charity work for veterans, having co-ed social outings, etc.
Anyway, these are just my opinions and words. Don't see the need for women in our Masonic fraternity. Everything would change. But I guess it would liven up the degree ceremonies though. 😉 (just a joke)

Not in my masonry, not in my time. I am a proud mastermason of the Masonic FRATERNITY in the great State of Texas. Don't know about the obligations up in your neck of the woods, but down in these parts we have penalties against such libertine thinking.

I certainly agree with you about the change in men's behavior when women are present, I've watched that for years. That is precisely why I favor separate groups for men and women. Most men begin to "posture" themselves differently and immediately when women are around, it's unavoidable and, to me, undesirable in Lodge.

I was an Australian Freemason born in 1958, my dad and both my grandfathers and most of my uncles were in the craft. I could have chosen to join as a Lewis but waited until I was of the full age of 21 years.

I was the Centenary master of my Lodge and am a Past First Principal of my chapter. I had a revelation in the mid 90's caused by a number of things that meant I found I no longer believed in a supreme being, it of course did not change my morals or standing in my community but as a man of honour I could no longer attend lodge as whilst I could be true to my obligations I no longer qualified to be a Mason due to my atheism. I left Scouting for the same reason. I honestly miss the brotherhood and the companionship and would return in a heartbeat if i could retake my obligations on the constitution of my country (as an example) rather than TVofTSL. As for women in our assemblies I would be a solid No vote however the removal of the need to believe in a Supreme being would (I am sure) assist in the return of many many lapsed masons

No.

I am a millennial and there are plenty of other millennials in my lodge and surrounding lodges of the area, and what we want is an even more traditional experience of Freemasonry, not less. We want even stricter adherence to the landmarks, as well. I am of course speaking from my personal experience and those of which I have talked about with my brothers my age and younger. We certainly do not want a watered down, PC culture experience. We could get that from almost, if not all, other groups and organizations out there.

WB Darin, I gently but firmly disagree. Thirty years ago I took certain solemn obligations in joining this fraternity. While you make several good points about the world in which we live as 21st century Masons, you make no case that those obligations should be ignored, modified, or renounced. I cannot go there.

I disagree on allowing women into our organization. I believe it would cause disharmony within lodges and alter ritual to accomodate. I agree with Bro:. Sean above about the removal of being related to a master mason to join OES. To my knowledge PHA OES have made this change in Pennsylvania.

MM from Maryland here. I wholeheartedly agree. Prohibitions against women only make us less and less desirable in the modern era. Nothing in our teachings is masculine-exclusive. Masonry has all the makings of an institution that could be wholeheartedly embraced by Millennials like myself, but too often I'm made aware by our elder Brethren how much of a "good ol boys" club it is, and always to its determent.

Would we lose some members before we gained them back? Absolutely. But the members I believe we'd lose are the same members who we're going to lose to time soon enough.

I had written out what I believed to be a respectful and thoughtful response… but unfortunately it was deleted when I tried to preview it. Instead of spending another hour going point by point addressing your article, as I did in my attempted response, I'll offer up a truncated version.

First, our obligations simply prevent it. This is an insurmountable obstacle. No one has the right to circumvent that. Not a woman, an atheist, nor an unqualified individual. Even those that do meet the qualifications have no right to challenge the ballot box, whose secrecy is indispensable. I don't believe saying they have the right is correct. They do not.

Second, many fraternal and civic groups have always allowed female membership. You mentioned the Oddfellows and OES, and they are worse off than we are as far as membership numbers. If co-ed membership isn't saving them, how can you reasonable believe it will make the difference in freemasonry? I seriously doubt, sans obligation, a huge number of women would become interested to put a dent in our declining numbers.

Third, "progressive" is a loaded term shaped by current social standards. Should masonic ideals of political equality and liberty no longer be considered progressive, they should not change to appear as what ever is deemed as currently progressive.

Fourth, the ideals and principles of freemasonry have never been concerned with membership numbers or the size of a lodge bank account. Nor should that ever be our concern. If a lodge has only 20 quality men committed to excelling in the ideals and principles of freemasonry, then that is enough. One member who doesn't share those ideals is one member too many. Masonry will survive by quality, not quantity.

When dignity is restored to our lodge rooms, and serious weight placed back on the principles and ideals of our fraternity, and brothers refuse to lower the standards of our conduct, but strive to excel in the things that make us great, membership will never be a problem.

Can a woman express those ideals and principles? Yes, they are not owned by freemasonry exclusively. Many women already are individually and in other worthy organizations, churches, co-masonic groups, civic groups, charities, and businesses… of which many regular freemasons are a part of and have no problem with. So can a woman join regular freemasonry? No, our obligations prohibit it.

Jim,
Thanks for your well thought out and eloquent reply. I suspect that the experience of Masonry in Australia and in the United States differs greatly. Unfortunately, having women attend our degrees and business meetings here in the US I don't think would fundamentally alter anything. I also didn't mean to think that every spouse or girlfriend would want to join the lodge. I'm glad that you understand my sentiment. However, I have a hard time with the support group for men argument. I believe that if anything, even if women were allowed in lodge, you'd still see the men with the men before lodge and the women with the women. I still think that the men would be allowed to have close friendships and bonds with the other men in their lodge. I just believe the when the gavel drops, that the men and women could meet on the level. Thanks for taking the time to read my article and I hope you keep reading the blog.

Dustin, thanks for taking the time to read my article and for replying. Isn't Freemasonry somewhat inherently already a PC culture experience? Isn't our belief that men are equal regardless of religion or race somewhat of a PC idea? In any case, I appreciate your candor, and even if we disagree, I hope that you'll keep reading our Blog.

Bro. Overby… Thanks for reading my article and for taking the time to reply. I appreciate your candor, and I'm glad that you at least can see my points even if we ultimately disagree.

First of all, Great name you have. The spelling might be a little off but still 🙂 Secondly, thanks for taking the time to write a reply. Yes we need to challenge the status quo. Yes we need to come up with ways to bring men back to the craft. My opinion is only mine. Some agree with me, many disagree, but we need to start having these conversations. Thanks for taking the time to read my article and for writing a reply.

I agree completely that atheists or polytheists should be allowed to join. I have several Hindu friends that I think would benefit from Masonry, who I've been reluctant to have petition because of an arcane belief that a God must be one and not many. Secondly, The Odd Fellows are a cautionary tale. They are actually growing faster than the Masonic fraternity in Illinois in percentage of new members. Let's not be too quick to dismiss them. One of the reasons for this is that they allow women… But we can agree to disagree. I thank you for reading my article and replying.

Thanks for taking the time to read my article and for replying. Obviously it's a controversial stance I've taken, and I realize it's not the only answer to the problem. However, it is a possible answer.

If we have men that 'posture' themselves differently and immediately when women are around, then we most likely shouldn't have allowed those men into the Fraternity. This being said, I thank you for reading and replying to my article.

Alex-Thanks for taking the time to read my article and comment. Thanks for agreeing with me. You can probably tell that opinion is one in the minority. Yes – the 'good ol boys' club or 'Red Pill Masculinity' cults need to be extinguished. Yes you're right we'd lose members, but we'd gain new ones as you said.

Hi Russ,
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to my article. One of the common threads in many responses has been that men need their own 'safe space'. I think my next article may be about that.

“All men are created equal” does not come from the PC culture (at least as far as Freemasonry is concerned). It comes from Freemasonry’s teaching the “brotherhood of man, under the fatherhood of God.” Freemasonry teaches natural law, which is, there is a creator and creation. And if we all are the creation of the creator then we therefore are all equal, and that we are all endowed by our creator with unalienable rights. Rights given to mankind by their creator. Not rights given by their fellow man. Atheism would teach the latter. If there were nothing more than man, then man decides what is a right and what is not. These teachings are what makes Freemasonry so radical, even today.

Thank you for taking the time to read not only mine, but all of our comments.

Co-ed Lodges have advantages and disadvantages. One disadvantage, it would kill the historic women's branches like the Order of Eastern Star. That's what is happening with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Since it allowed co-ed lodges, the Rebekah lodges decreased. At one time, the Rebekahas had over 1.6 million members in North America. In the 1980's, Rebekahs had some 600,000 members while Odd Fellows had some 500,000. But when IOOF went co-ed, the Rebekahs went down to 80,000 members because women would just join the Odd Fellows. Maybe there is nothing wrong with that. I don't know. But the Rebekahs – which is the first recognized women's fraternal organization in North America may face extinction. The Rebekahs was formed before many other women's fraternal organizations, even before Freemasonry officially recognized the O.E.S. The Rebekahs was larger than the O.E.S. in the past. But with IOOF being co-ed, it had lost nearly 80% of its membership.

Hi Dru – It's not a belligerent refusal to see reality. It's called Guarding the West Gate. I would like to think that we could be the gentlemen that we claim we are. If we can't then we need re-examine our membership on a whole scale level. Yes – men and women are different, but I was speaking more to our ability to hopefully act with some personal discipline. This being said, I don't recall saying anything about forcing male lodges to accept women. I just threw the idea out there. I'd honestly be in favor of having a model like the Boy Scouts where there would be a men's lodge, woman's lodge and option for a co-ed lodge. I'm sorry if I offended you in any way. My intention was to get a discussion going. I at least appreciate you reading my article and replying to me, as many decided to just reply and not read what I was trying to say. In any case, let's part on the level Brother. I hope you continue to read the Midnight Freemasons, even if you don't always agree with us.

MM from NC here. I do not agree with the co-ed of masonry. I understand the thought process behind todays generation and all of the social media today of gender equality. But we must remember the history and meaning behind our craft. All of our teachings and rituals are composed of the history of masons men before us. The lodge is a place that make good men better Not a place to conform with media and opinions of a world, that goes aginst what our brotherhood tries to make better. Brothers are lodges are built and sustained on the backs of the men inside them. Conforming or changing our history for just the numbers is wrong and goes against the teachings of our past, our present and the continuations into our future endeavors. Thank you brother for posting the most controversial thing in our world today but in hope of our Masonic History let us continue our heritage and history. Thank you.

I think that this is appropriate at this time. When one thinks of it, the purpose of Freemasonry is to improve men, and by extension, women. In the ideal world where Freemasonry has fulfilled its purpose, it would no longer need to exist. Wouldn’t it be better for men and women to labor together to improve our world? I truly think that there are women who would like to be Masons, whether they would want mixed Lodges or female only Lodges under the same Grand Lodge is unknown. I speak as one that has lived in a family where men have been members in unbroken continuity for close to 200 years, if not more. My perspective is not about money or declining membership, but about men and women being equally able to benefit from membership as well as both being able to benefit others. Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I unto thee. So said St. Peter in the Acts of the Apostles, we are all pilgrims on the path of life to build the New Jerusalem, and women are equally capable to make this happen.

Christina,
Thanks for taking the time to read and reply to the article. I did cover a lot of things in it, so I didn't want to lose the importance of what women would get out of Masonry being as important as what men get out of it. The financial aspects I discussed were not meant to be the sole argument for it. I agree that the benefits of membership for women and being able to benefit others is the main reason that we should pursue this endeavor. I feel like the Grand Lodge of England is close to recognizing this given their overtures to the OWF and HFAF in the past 20 years. I do hope that we will see it in my lifetime, and I have hope as the old guard dies out that we'll see a lot of much needed reform in the US Grand Lodges. If you wish to continue the discussion, feel free to email me. My email is in my bio above.

Isn’t the aim of Masonry to build the temple of humanity? As a long time (20+ years) member of a number of regular lodges (regular =no women) in Europe and Australia I have always been questioning why we exclude 50 per cent of the population by default.These questions have gotten me into interesting discussions and gotten me almost excluded a number of years ago. From an historical perspective I understand the drivers behind Anderson’s Masonic Constitution from 1723 as women in those days didn’t exist (aside from that Masonry was excluding almost anyone back then). This in my view questionable explanation from many masons that women would change the atmosphere in the lodge is misogynistic and total BS. the UGLE (English Grand Lodge) has issued a gender reassignment policy in July 2018. Now you can become a Mason if you are a transgender. Quite remarkable in itself, but why stop there? Wouldn’t it be great to attract the smartest and greatest regardless of gender, race or belief? And yes the local lodge needs to be able to decide whom to accept. (Many bright Masons in the past had similar ideas, but now we might be at a time where the temple of humanity could become a reality instead of a halfbaked edifice. Best regards from the Southern Hemisphere.