‘I just want to be equal’: female angler takes on elite men-only flyfishing club

Marina Gibson said in her memoir how she set up her own flyfishing guiding company because none of the established guide organisations would hire her. Photograph: Mark Pinder/The Guardian

Gibson and other women flyfishers believe that the refusal of the Flyfishers’ Club to admit them is symbolic of the scepticism toward them in the sport. Photograph: Mark Pinder/The Guardian

By Betsy Reed – Guardian US

Marina Gibson wants women to be accepted to 140-year-old Flyfishers’ Club, of which the king is patron

After she remarked that it was about time that Britain’s leading flyfishing club admitted women, Marina Gibson received a rush of helpful suggestions from male anglers who felt protective of the club’s heritage.

Gibson could set up her own flyfishing organisation for women, one man suggested. Another pointed out that she could join the Women’s Institute if she really wanted to be part of a club, or visit the Flyfishers’ Club in the evening (but not at lunchtime) if she was lucky enough to be invited in by one of the 600 men who are members. Others emailed asking her to explain why she wanted to join in the first place.

“I don’t want to have to start up a women’s-only flyfishing club because they won’t let us into their one,” Gibson said wearily.

One of Britain’s few high-profile female anglers, Gibson is familiar with the strain of unthinking sexism from many men in the community. “I don’t want to be called a fisherwoman. I don’t want to be a member of a women’s-only fishing club. I just want to be equal.”

Women have suggested intermittently since at least the 1970s that the Flyfishers’ men-only rules should be changed, but these requests have been consistently rejected by the 140-year-old Mayfair institution, of which the king is patron and which is housed in two upstairs rooms in the white stuccoed, neoclassical Savile Club (which also does not permit female members). CLICK HERE TO READ ARTICLE