![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/mcc-members-can-now-recommend-two-new-joiners-but-only-if-one-is-a-woman/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/TELEMMGLPICT000233742144_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bqq0hXPkI_GX3QDYmEw99JfKYPjXNdof9ZzFJVcQJcHmc.jpeg&description=And that number came after a record year of female sign ups, with 134 names being added. The waiting list for full membership currently comprises around 11,000 candidates, including 5,500 associate members. Women make up approximately eight per cent of that total. MCC officials openly hope their latest initiative, explained in a letter from chief executive Guy Lavender, will quickly boost the number of women recruits. "Any Full or Senior Member (with no restriction on length of membership) may propose one Candidate per calendar year (rising to two per year if at least one of the Candidates is female)," Lavender explains in his letter. He added: "The system being launched today is designed to be much simpler to navigate by both the proposer and the candidate. It has also been streamlined on the operational side, removing much time-consuming manual processing." In a statement sent to Telegraph Sport, the MCC said of its new application process: 'By introducing changes to simplify the Club's application and endorsement procedure for Candidates, the Club has the chance to encourage an increase in its female membership. Since 1998, we have been delighted to welcome hundreds of women to MCC membership, but with a long waiting list progress was always going to be slow. 'The Club felt it could now do more to support Members in introducing more women to the membership, whilst the change in the process seeks to address diversity in many forms.' The diversity drive comes after Stephen Fry was installed as president of the club, which owns Lord's - the "Home of Cricket" - and oversees the laws of the game. Fry has spoken repeatedly of cricket's need to embrace modernisation, using the term "batter" instead of 'batsman' for example.){kind=link}
Exclusive: A new system for acquiring membership will see women effectively fast-tracked through the extensive waiting list
It is only 24 years since the so-called “egg and bacon” blazers of the Marylebone Cricket Club abandoned their archaic ban on women members.
Now, however, the most traditional club in sport is finally ready to slam shut its gender divide – by launching a female-targeted recruitment drive.
In the MCC’s biggest membership shake up since 1998, existing members can now nominate two additional names, provided one of them is a woman. It is the first time the cricketing institution, founded in 1787, has attempted such a diversity drive.
Women will be effectively fast-tracked through the waiting list, redressing the balance at what remains an overwhelmingly male cohort. There are currently around 18,500 full members in total, but as recently as 2019, only 645 of them were female.