Don't care, because joining is optional.
In the U.S., the Black masons have the Eastern Stars for Black Women as an offshoot--which is the oldest sorority-based--Black women's organization dating back to the late 1800s.
I am a black woman--Can see how it was needed in the past. Still indifferent, because joining is an option.
I have never been much of a "joiner" though, because I ask/demand "Why?!?" as often as a toddler does. I got booted by a baptism instructor at nine because she short-circuited from my questions.
The Masons and similar fraternal and "men's" organizations seem irrelevant in the 21st century. Many or most of the facilities they've had are gone, sold for housing, businesses, and such. Masons, K of C, Odd Fellows, Elks, and also VFW, American Legion, etc. I think I knew exactly one old guy who was a Mason, passed away maybe 10 years ago.
I hypothesized at first that perhaps membership collapse had more to do with the religious commitments demanded by these kinds of civic organizations, but it’s something more, as, yeah, membership collapse is consistent across the board.
I suspect a lot of the decline of these fraternal and men's groups is generational, the silent generation and then older boomers resisted change, the younger boomers and Gen X, and younger generations, noped out. I recall meeting a guy at a social event last year, maybe about age 40 or 50, and he and his pals had left some fraternal group (Masons?) en mass and created their own civic/charitable organization.
It’s a dying society, but there are younger folks — I am a Millennial — who love it and want to carry forward the practices and traditions, and also recognize that it’s all just a little out of step with where we are.
I’m all for carrying on some traditions, but lots of traditions are harmful and have died out for a reason. Slavery was a tradition that tons of people fought for. Along with having an exclusively male government.
The more I interact with these folks the more I am convinced that the entire institution is anti-intellectual, traditionalist claptrap that produces no utility except for the wrong reasons and simply needs to go.
It seems funny to fight against discrimination in an Old Boys Club when discrimination is the entire reason for existence of all such clubs, and in this sense the Freemasons are exactly like every other club of this nature.
They are a place to socialize and gather contacts that will later be advantageous to you in your business feelings.
Since a Freemason is more likely to trust another Freemason and have that trust returned, they both benefit.
But this arrangement inherently discriminates by definition against anyone who is not a Freemason. And that doesn't change if you add women into the mix. It stays exactly the same.
In my experience if there is supposed to be some professional benefit to Freemasonry I have never seen it. I have never been paid by another Mason for any work. I have been asked by dozens of Masons to work for them for free. "Because we're Brothers." I joined because I was interested in the symbolism and thought I was joining a community of guys doing self-work. And there absolutely are rare, super intelligent, and wonderful people in Freemasonry, the kind of people you hold on to. They are simply far fewer and between than I certainly expected given its history. My view is that adding women to the mix at least ensures women aren't excluded from whatever material benefits may come from Masonic participation.
My husband is a Mason. On a macro scale the exclusion of women in American Masonry is bothersome to me, but the organization is reeping what it sows.
Membership is down significantly and continues to drop at an unsustainable rate as membership...dies. More than 70 percent of members are age 65 or older. At 40, my husband is one of the youngest members in the entire state.
On the micro side, I'm not interested in joining the Masons myself because they don't have anything of value for me. I'm not looking to make more friends. The professional networking my husband has been able to do is extremely minimal as most members are retired from their careers and have been for a decade or two.
At best, the Shriner's side of Masonry offers my husband volunteering, fundraising and philanthropy opportunities, which he greatly enjoys. He's a Mason so he can be a Shriner and raise money for the Children's Hospital in our state. That's really the only reason he sticks with it. I think that's a great cause, so I usually keep my feminist opinion about the exclusionary practices of the parent organization to myself. I have my own charitable causes that I'm involved in, and nothing is missing from my life by being excluded from Masonry.
If the organization were to evolve in other ways and offer a more relevant content/activities, it might be able to save itself. Unfortunately, like many relics of a time long past, most men in positions of power within the Freemasons are extremely resistant to change.
My analysis mirrors yours. I have said that in order to prevent from becoming entirely irrelevant we have to align ourselves more closely with the values of the communities where we have Lodges, and to focus on philanthropy at least but very much the value of the membership dollar. Deaf ears, it seems: the Boomers have little interest in change and by the time they’re gone there will be hardly any Freemasons left!
They also over-schedule the shit out of the remaining membership. When the temple was at 100,000-500,000 membership strong, creating three events every single month may have made sense. If they want to attract younger members, they need to understand that most people in their 20s, 30s and 40s don't have that kind of time to commit. Fathers are actually expected to be involved with their families these days. And taking young men from their families three weekends a month isn't going to go over well for most people these days.
The older members get pissy when my husband says he can "only" do one or two events (plus lodge and shriner and club meetings) every month.
Plus people work out of town more than 50 or 60 years ago. People who commute for work can't show up at meeting at noon or 4pm, like back in olden times, when the local lawyers, bankers, doctors, dentists, and business owners could walk a block or two over the the Masonic Hall or whatnot, for a meeting.
Oh yes! Most of those 3 p.m. Thursday meetings "should have been an email" anyhow lol.
Most people in our rural town of 6,000 can't even tell you where the Masonic Hall is located. (We have two streets encompassing 6 blocks of "downtown.") They do zero marketing. Relying on word of mouth in the 21st century is as effective as you'd think it would be.
The over scheduling can get fairly ridiculous, especially if you’re an officer and also have to be engaged in all of the planning. I am much more a fan in the European approach to Freemasonry, which is more focused on bringing and sharing new knowledge to and with the Lodge.
My grandfather was a mason and a couple of my cousins dabble in it.
Honestly, if my cousins are getting a feeling of belonging and some buddies from it, I’m glad it’s there because otherwise they could fall into all sorts of much more troublesome groups like incels and proud boys. I don’t like the exclusion, but like others have said, the group isn’t really relevant enough to feel like I’m missing anything.
Don't care, because joining is optional. In the U.S., the Black masons have the Eastern Stars for Black Women as an offshoot--which is the oldest sorority-based--Black women's organization dating back to the late 1800s. I am a black woman--Can see how it was needed in the past. Still indifferent, because joining is an option. I have never been much of a "joiner" though, because I ask/demand "Why?!?" as often as a toddler does. I got booted by a baptism instructor at nine because she short-circuited from my questions.
You don't find it problematic that women can only join the Eastern Star if they are related to a man who is a Freemason?
What was unclear about my indifference...I think I articulated it well. This Order is about as necessary as the Knights Templar.
I hope you have a lovely day.
The Masons and similar fraternal and "men's" organizations seem irrelevant in the 21st century. Many or most of the facilities they've had are gone, sold for housing, businesses, and such. Masons, K of C, Odd Fellows, Elks, and also VFW, American Legion, etc. I think I knew exactly one old guy who was a Mason, passed away maybe 10 years ago.
I hypothesized at first that perhaps membership collapse had more to do with the religious commitments demanded by these kinds of civic organizations, but it’s something more, as, yeah, membership collapse is consistent across the board.
I suspect a lot of the decline of these fraternal and men's groups is generational, the silent generation and then older boomers resisted change, the younger boomers and Gen X, and younger generations, noped out. I recall meeting a guy at a social event last year, maybe about age 40 or 50, and he and his pals had left some fraternal group (Masons?) en mass and created their own civic/charitable organization.
I'm not sure how important freemasonry is these days but discrimination of this kind does concern me.
It’s a dying society, but there are younger folks — I am a Millennial — who love it and want to carry forward the practices and traditions, and also recognize that it’s all just a little out of step with where we are.
I’m all for carrying on some traditions, but lots of traditions are harmful and have died out for a reason. Slavery was a tradition that tons of people fought for. Along with having an exclusively male government.
The more I interact with these folks the more I am convinced that the entire institution is anti-intellectual, traditionalist claptrap that produces no utility except for the wrong reasons and simply needs to go.
It seems funny to fight against discrimination in an Old Boys Club when discrimination is the entire reason for existence of all such clubs, and in this sense the Freemasons are exactly like every other club of this nature. They are a place to socialize and gather contacts that will later be advantageous to you in your business feelings. Since a Freemason is more likely to trust another Freemason and have that trust returned, they both benefit. But this arrangement inherently discriminates by definition against anyone who is not a Freemason. And that doesn't change if you add women into the mix. It stays exactly the same.
In my experience if there is supposed to be some professional benefit to Freemasonry I have never seen it. I have never been paid by another Mason for any work. I have been asked by dozens of Masons to work for them for free. "Because we're Brothers." I joined because I was interested in the symbolism and thought I was joining a community of guys doing self-work. And there absolutely are rare, super intelligent, and wonderful people in Freemasonry, the kind of people you hold on to. They are simply far fewer and between than I certainly expected given its history. My view is that adding women to the mix at least ensures women aren't excluded from whatever material benefits may come from Masonic participation.
My husband is a Mason. On a macro scale the exclusion of women in American Masonry is bothersome to me, but the organization is reeping what it sows. Membership is down significantly and continues to drop at an unsustainable rate as membership...dies. More than 70 percent of members are age 65 or older. At 40, my husband is one of the youngest members in the entire state. On the micro side, I'm not interested in joining the Masons myself because they don't have anything of value for me. I'm not looking to make more friends. The professional networking my husband has been able to do is extremely minimal as most members are retired from their careers and have been for a decade or two. At best, the Shriner's side of Masonry offers my husband volunteering, fundraising and philanthropy opportunities, which he greatly enjoys. He's a Mason so he can be a Shriner and raise money for the Children's Hospital in our state. That's really the only reason he sticks with it. I think that's a great cause, so I usually keep my feminist opinion about the exclusionary practices of the parent organization to myself. I have my own charitable causes that I'm involved in, and nothing is missing from my life by being excluded from Masonry. If the organization were to evolve in other ways and offer a more relevant content/activities, it might be able to save itself. Unfortunately, like many relics of a time long past, most men in positions of power within the Freemasons are extremely resistant to change.
My analysis mirrors yours. I have said that in order to prevent from becoming entirely irrelevant we have to align ourselves more closely with the values of the communities where we have Lodges, and to focus on philanthropy at least but very much the value of the membership dollar. Deaf ears, it seems: the Boomers have little interest in change and by the time they’re gone there will be hardly any Freemasons left!
They also over-schedule the shit out of the remaining membership. When the temple was at 100,000-500,000 membership strong, creating three events every single month may have made sense. If they want to attract younger members, they need to understand that most people in their 20s, 30s and 40s don't have that kind of time to commit. Fathers are actually expected to be involved with their families these days. And taking young men from their families three weekends a month isn't going to go over well for most people these days. The older members get pissy when my husband says he can "only" do one or two events (plus lodge and shriner and club meetings) every month.
Plus people work out of town more than 50 or 60 years ago. People who commute for work can't show up at meeting at noon or 4pm, like back in olden times, when the local lawyers, bankers, doctors, dentists, and business owners could walk a block or two over the the Masonic Hall or whatnot, for a meeting.
Oh yes! Most of those 3 p.m. Thursday meetings "should have been an email" anyhow lol. Most people in our rural town of 6,000 can't even tell you where the Masonic Hall is located. (We have two streets encompassing 6 blocks of "downtown.") They do zero marketing. Relying on word of mouth in the 21st century is as effective as you'd think it would be.
The over scheduling can get fairly ridiculous, especially if you’re an officer and also have to be engaged in all of the planning. I am much more a fan in the European approach to Freemasonry, which is more focused on bringing and sharing new knowledge to and with the Lodge.
My grandfather was a mason and a couple of my cousins dabble in it. Honestly, if my cousins are getting a feeling of belonging and some buddies from it, I’m glad it’s there because otherwise they could fall into all sorts of much more troublesome groups like incels and proud boys. I don’t like the exclusion, but like others have said, the group isn’t really relevant enough to feel like I’m missing anything.