What role do women play in Freemasonry?

Traditional Masonic regulations exclude women from regular lodge membership, defining the Craft as a men's society 2. In present-day practice, however, women participate through separate, female-only Grand Lodges—such as The Order of Women Freemasons and the Honourable Fraternity of Ancient Freemasons—which practice the same ceremonies and wear the same regalia, and the United Grand Lodge of England officially recognizes and collaborates with these bodies on charitable and community outreach projects, as the United Grand Lodge of England states.

Historically, auxiliary and side bodies developed to involve women alongside Masonic systems 2. In the Rite of Adoption, female degrees were conferred, such as those granted to Madam H. P. Blavatsky in 1877 under the Ancient and Primitive Rite 2. Other eighteenth-century societies, such as the Mopses, admitted women to all official roles except Grand Master 2, while auxiliary lodges like the Three Crowned Hearts in Prague permitted female officers while requiring a Master Mason to serve as Master and Treasurer 2.

In Universal Co-Freemasonry (originally La Maçonnerie Mixte), men and women are admitted to membership on equal terms 1. Developing in France and spreading internationally under leaders such as Annie Besant, Co-Masonry works Craft degrees while maintaining its own governing Supreme Council 1. Established Craft jurisdictions do not extend recognition to Co-Freemasonry, considering it entirely distinct from regular Freemasonry 2.