{"id":13402,"date":"2026-04-19T23:28:02","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T22:28:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=13402"},"modified":"2026-04-19T23:28:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T22:28:02","slug":"mcc-to-consider-fast-tracking-female-memberships-to-improve-gender-imbalance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=13402","title":{"rendered":"MCC to consider fast-tracking female memberships to improve gender imbalance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Any change to the club&#8217;s membership policy would require the approval of two-thirds of existing members to be implemented and the notion of &#8216;queue jumping&#8217; on a 30-year waiting list is likely to have detractors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Though an exact target for female membership has not yet been agreed, last year&#8217;s AGM proposed a goal for 20% of full members to be women in 10 years&#8217; time. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">At the current rate of progression, it would take another 35 years for that target to be reached. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The other potential strategies alongside accelerating female memberships include increasing the overall membership numbers, reforming the pipeline of potential members and expanding the women&#8217;s playing programme.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Mark Nicholas, the MCC chair, said in covering notes in the document that it will be &#8220;more difficult&#8221; for the club to &#8220;maintain our relevance in cricket&#8221; if the membership remains &#8220;unrepresentative of the gender make-up of the wider cricketing community&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The MCC has already stepped up efforts to increase the number of women among its playing members &#8211; essentially a way for candidates to fast-track themselves to membership by representing the club in fixtures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In 2024 there was a 77% increase in women applying to qualify as player members while the number of women&#8217;s out-matches played by the MCC increased by 34%.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A dedicated recruitment officer for women&#8217;s playing members &#8211; Emma Marsh &#8211; was appointed in 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Lord&#8217;s is hosting three group-stage matches during the Women&#8217;s T20 World Cup this summer as well as the final, and is also staging its first women&#8217;s Test match in the ground&#8217;s history between England and India in July. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Any change to the club&#8217;s membership policy would require the approval of two-thirds of existing members to be implemented and the notion of &#8216;queue jumping&#8217; on a 30-year waiting list is likely to have detractors. Though an exact target for female membership has not yet been agreed, last year&#8217;s AGM proposed a goal for 20%<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cricket"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}