(by Anna Gordon, The Guardian, 20 Jun 2022)
hen you mention the Freemasons, people tend to have similar reactions: do members have a secret handshake? Do they roll up their trouser leg? Is there corruption? The one thing theydo not tend to think of are women.
The roots of women’s Freemasonry can be traced to France in 1882, when Maria Deraismes became the first woman initiated, at the Lodge of Free Thinkers. Co-masonry (Freemasonry that admits both men and women) was brought from France to the UK in 1902 by Dr Annie Besant, who became its leader. Besant was a feminist campaigner, social reformer and one of the organisers of the matchgirls strike in…
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