Savage Club rejects women: I’m one of the ‘Karens’ the Savage Club is shutting out. They can have their dingy cubby house

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I’m one of the Savage Club’s ‘Karens’. The boys can keep their dingy cubby house

Jen Vuk Writer September 30, 2025 — 3.30pm Advertisement

As a woman, you don’t expect many favours from a men-only club, but that’s exactly what the Melbourne Savage Club delivered – albeit accidentally – when its “Karen”-bemoaning email was leaked recently.

For anyone unfamiliar with this charming local anomaly, the signature club opened in 1894 and took its moniker from the Savage Club of London (named after 18th-century English poet Richard Savage). It describes itself as the “home of bohemian Melbourne” and motivated by “music, art, drama, literature and science”.

The burgundy doors at the Savage Club’s will be closed to women lunchers. Credit: Penny