Masonic Salon in Toulouse: how many women are Freemasons in Occitania?
The organization of the 7th Masonic Salon in Toulouse, this weekend at the José-Cabanis media library, is an opportunity to take stock of Freemasonry in the region, an association which refuses the term secret society and whose members prefer to define themselves as “discreet”, women in particular.
Reputed to be even more discreet than the “brothers”, women made their entry into masonry during the creation of Human Rights, says the DH, “the first mixed obedience, born in 1893”, explains Gérard Soulier, the secretary general of the Toulouse Institute of Masonic Studies.
In 1945, the “sisters” took their autonomy with the creation of the Grande Loge Feminine de France, GLFF, which is the only exclusively female obedience in France. It is also the one with the most initiated “sisters”.
It was not until 1973 and the creation of the Universal Mixed Grand Lodge that diversity regained momentum. GLMU soon doubled in terms of numbers by the Mixed Grand Lodge of France born in 1981, the DH remaining far ahead insofar as two thirds of its members are women.
The Grand Orient of France makes its revolution
But the real revolution came from the Grand Orient of France, which voted for diversity in 2010. “A subject that caused debate in the historic lodges of Toulouse”, confides a brother. And for good reason, in the Pink City, the five oldest lodges were created between 1745 and 1787. Habits die hard. The brothers who were in an exclusively male obedience until 2010 have nevertheless ended up taking the plunge. “Now, there are 6 or 7% of sisters at the GO”, specifies Gérard Soulier. Among them, external recruitments… and defectors from the DH or the GLFF, which does not fail to worry these obediences.
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Transmit and rebuild, theme of the 7th Masonic Salon in Toulouse
“There was also a Covid effect which led to resignations, as in all associations”, notes the secretary general of the Toulouse Institute of Masonic Studies who sees in demonstrations such as the Masonic Salon of Toulouse a way of “ speak well of Freemasonry and its values”. Values which, for once, are not defined by a gender and are indeed universal. Sisterhood brotherhood, same fight.
Freemasonry in figures in the Occitanie region
In this month of November 2022, there are 17,580 Freemasons and 3,570 Freemasons in Occitania, i.e. 17% women out of the 21,150 “brothers” and “sisters” in the region. They are divided into 770 lodges attached to ten obediences, the Grand Orient of France being the most important. The members of these 770 lodges or workshops meet alternately in 130 temples, at the rate of two meetings – or held – per month, in the thirteen departments of the region.