How many male and female freemasons are there in the world today?

Answer 1

we will never know until it is to late

Answer 2

The largest population of Freemasons is in the United States. There are a few hundred thousand members in the US. There are no women in traditional Masonry. There is a minor group known as Co-Masonry which women can join, but there are not many of them. Worldwide, there are a few million Freemasons. Since there is no international governing organization for Freemasonry, it is impossible to ever have an "accurate" count of Freemasons in the world or in a country with multiple Grand Lodges like the United States.

Answer 3

wild is regurgitating the urban myths which sound credible but are not accurate - just a shred of truth that's been mis-interpreted.

How many? impossible to answer, people join, people resign, people die. It's a moving target. Also, there is no "super-duper we're the top level masters of the galaxy" organisation. Lodges are governed by Constitutions which are generally geographically based, like England, Scotland, Ireland (and lotsa other countries), so the English might be able to tell you how many English freemasons there are, but would't have access to hard data from any of the others. If I were to hazard an insider guess I'd take a stab that it could be as high as 1% of the planetary population at best - we're very choosy about who we admit.

There are also pseudo-masonic organisations which mainstream Masons don't recognise, even though their activities are very similar, perhaps even copied from the main guys. Example: The Grand Orient of France - they, by the way, admit women I'm told.

Don't get hissy about the exclusion of women - imagine it as boy-scouts for grown-ups. You probably do girly things (hen's night, book club, baby-showers, whatever) and we need some male-oriented chill-time too. It is not a front for some women-hater plot with the motto "mysoginists of the world unite - chain that witch to the kitchen sink".

Strange that wild compares us to Catholics and JW's. FM is not a religion or a replacement for religion. All discussion on religion is banned at meetings. (again, there are exceptions - In some constitutions it is a requirement to be baptised into the Christian faith, but this is by no means universal, in fact quite rare).

The guy who runs around flashing the secret handshake or whatever is breaking the rules. It is forbidden to use your membership in order to obtain pecuniary gain. Theoretically though, it is also forbidden for priests to molest altar boys and politicians to take bribes. Unfortunately, in this imperfect world, all these things happen, including a few FM's abusing their craft. There is no secret codeword that we can conceal in job advertisements that mean "Non-Masons need not apply" (well, there is, but we don't use it - it's forbidden to write it down).

On the other hand, if your husband picked up a business lead from a buddy at the golf-club, a member of the church choir he practises with on wednesday nights or the manager of the local pub - would you be upset? Probably not (unless he didn't tell you he was going to the pub in the first place to get out of fixing the washing machine).

So why pick on freemasons who do business together?

If it's because you think we're a secret society with an evil agenda, all you're really saying is that you're paranoid. If we're a secret, how do you know about us?

We possess secrets, sure. So does your local newsagent. Go ask him to reveal to you all his accounting records and disclose the margin he makes on that Mars Bar and Coke you buy every day on the way home from work. He won't.
Why do we conceal our secrets (which are all merely symbolic, we don't have the activation codes to all the nuclear warheads in the world)?
because your masonic "career" is a journey - it would be like telling your mum the answer to every mystery-thriller book in the world - no point in reading the book when you already know the butler did it.

Answer 4

Women are excluded from being Freemasons. It is a sexist organisation. They do have what they call "ladies nights" when the wives have to dress up in the most expensive ball gown they can afford. So they can look `better` than anyone else, and so that they will "be a credit to "their husbands.! They do however contribute a lot of money to charities.My late father was a Freemason, I still have his `dressing up` clothes. It is no longer the secret society that it used to be, but still rather covert.

Answer 5

The Masons are a fraternal organization, hence women are excluded. Before you put this organization down let me tell you something. Every Shriner, must first be a Freemason. I think everyone is aware of what the Shriner's do for children.You would be surprised how many great leaders of this country were Masons

Answer 6

Ahh don't worry about the Freemasons. Its the Stonecutters you want to worry about.

Answer 7

female: i believe the answer is none but perhaps there are similar societies for women

male: more than you'd think. More than Jehovah's Witnesses, for sure, but probably less than Catholics. Bit of a broad range I know, but...

Answer 8

are you talking about the secret sect? if so, women arent allowed to join. they have to join the easternstars.

Answer 9

Too many